Ceres (Photo : Reuters)
A recent report from the United States space agency shows that space probe Dawn captured an interesting photo of Ceres. The photo shows one of Ceres' craters with two illuminating bright spots.
Scientists are excited to know about the bright spots as the Dawn has been caught by Ceres' gravity and the space probe is expected to land on its surface within the coming months. According to some scientists, the bright spots could have been triggered by an impact that has so much power that it dug out its surface deposits and shows Ceres' deeper layers.
On the other hand, Deputy Project scientist Dr. Carol Raymond said that the photo captured by Dawn has very low resolution and no definitive explanation could be offered unless the probe can closely examine it.
A researcher for NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory said, "These spots were extremely surprising and they have been puzzling to everyone who has seen them. They show up in a 92km-wide crater that's about 19 degrees north latitude." The researcher added that the bright spot could contain high reflective material.
On 2014, the Herschel telescope of the European Space agency issued a report stating that water vapor was detected on two of Ceres' sectors, according to BBC. Additionally, one of those sectors was where the bright spots were located. Dr. Raymond said that this discovery is very significant to their study.
Once the Dawn space probe successfully landed on Ceres, it will spend at least 14 months on its surface in order to gather data about the 950km-diameter of the dwarf planet. Ceres is the largest outer space object located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, according to Esbtrib.
