New York: Dwarf planet Ceres is proving to be weirder than it was originally thought. One feature of the celestial body that has been baffling scientists and astronomers are those mysterious 'white spots' on its surface.
Now, US space agency NASA's Dawn spacecraft, which has been orbiting the dwarf planet, has sent new, clearer images of Ceres from an orbit 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers) above it.
The biggest of the 'white spots' is in a crater about 55 miles (90 kilometers) across, reports NASA on its website.
So far, scientists have been unable to give any explanation for the existence of these mysterious dots of the dwarf planet's surface.
The two main suspects behind these bright spots are - accumulated ice or salt.
"The bright spots in this configuration make Ceres unique from anything we've seen before in the solar system. The science team is working to understand their source. Reflection from ice is the leading candidate in my mind, but the team continues to consider alternate possibilities, such as salt. With closer views from the new orbit and multiple view angles, we soon will be better able to determine the nature of this enigmatic phenomenon," said Chris Russell, principal investigator for the Dawn mission based at the University of California, Los Angeles.
More light is likely to be shed on the mystery when Dawn moves towards its next orbit of altitude of 900 miles (1,450 kilometers) in early August.
On March 6, 2015, Dawn made history as the first mission to visit a dwarf planet, and the first to orbit two distinct extraterrestrial targets. At its previous target, Vesta, Dawn took tens of thousands of images and made many observations about the body's composition and other properties.
