This mystery surrounding the dwarf planet Ceres began earlier in this year with two bright spots being identified together in a crater km) across. Based on observation, scientists have now identified 10 bright areas on Ceres’s surface. These two bright spots are the most prominent on the dwarf planet and they’re located in an area with similar temperature. Another bright spot is located in an area cooler than Ceres’ rest. Scientists have long been fascinated by these bright spots but are not able to answer why or how. The public has offered many explanations, from the highly probable to the bizarre. Dawn’s infrared and visible mapping spectrometers (VIR) images highlight Ceres regions with bright spots. Image: dawn.jpl.nasa.gov. As Dawn (the space probe of NASA sent in 2007) approaches the dwarf planet, higher-resolution images of Dawn will be available. Dawn to start scientific phase soon As from April 23rd, Dawn will start its first intensive science phase, at a distance of 8,400 miles (13,500 km) from Ceres’ surface, when more detailed pictures of the bright spots will be available, said Martin Hoffmann, a researcher from the Dawn framing camera team, based at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Gottingen, Germany. Chris Russell, the lead investigator of the Dawn mission, stated that Dawn will soon begin its first intensive science phase. This will be at a distance of 813 miles (13,500 km) from Ceres’ surface. The map projector was created using images captured by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft in the initial approach. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA) New color map of Ceres While Dawn has been orbiting Ceres since March, a new color map of the dwarf planet is being created, which reveals the diversity of its surface. Researchers today said that Ceres once was a highly active body because of differences in its structure and colors. Russell stated that “This dwarf planet wasn’t just an inertrock throughout its history. The planet was dynamic, and there were many processes which resulted from different materials being found in different areas. This diversity is beginning to be captured in our color photos.” 2015, The Dawn spacecraft became the first from Earth to orbit a dwarf planet and also the first to orbit extraterrestrial targets. The giant asteroid Vesta has been studied by Dawn from 2011 up to 2012, Dawn, giving many insights into its geology and history. There are two bright spots on Ceres’s surface. Scientists don’t know their names. NASA Image. Vesta, which is dry, is Ceres, which is wet. Ceres, on the other hand, is believed to be composed of 25% water and ice. Scientists hope to discover more about the formation of our solar system by comparing Vesta and Ceres. Ceres has fewer large craters that scientists expected, despite being heavily cratered. A VIR (visible-infrared mapping instrument spectrometer) has been studying the temperature differences between features of Ceres’ surface. Frederico Tosi (a researcher at the Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology and the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics Rome), said that preliminary analysis suggests that different bright areas on the dwarf planet behave differently. NASA Video – The Dawn Mission
