New Delhi: NASA's Dawn spacecraft has revealed new views of the mysterious lights on the dwarf planet Ceres.
Earlier this week, scientists behind the Dawn mission unveiled the most detailed images yet from Dawn, including highly anticipated views of Occator Crater - taken just 240 miles above the surface of Ceres.
Occator Crater, measuring 57 miles across and 2.5 miles deep, contains the brightest area on Ceres, the dwarf planet that Dawn has explored since early 2015.
"Before Dawn began its intensive observations of Ceres last year, Occator Crater looked to be one large bright area. Now, with the latest close views, we can see complex features that provide new mysteries to investigate," said Ralf Jaumann, planetary scientist and Dawn co-investigator at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Berlin.
The team also released an enhanced color map of the surface of Ceres, highlighting the diversity of surface materials and their relationships to surface morphology.
Dawn spacecraft made history last year as the first mission to reach a dwarf planet, and the first to orbit two distinct extraterrestrial targets -- both of them in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
(Source: NASA)
