The discovery of a bright spot on Ceres has given rise to lots of speculation. And now we've learned something
new: it has a friend. The second spot is not quite as bright, but still
weirdly reflective compared to the rest of the dwarf planet. And one
scientist has a possible explanation for both of these bright spots.
Top
image: From photographs taken on February 19, 2015 at 46,000 kilometers
away (29,000 miles), Dawn can finally see that the mysterious bright
spot on Ceres is in a basin, and has a smaller, dimmer companion.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
The latest
round of photographs was taken by Dawn on February 19, 2015 when the
spacecraft was still 46,000 kilometers away (29,000 miles) from the dwarf planet. It reveals not just the bright spot that has been provoking speculation for years,
but now our imaging resolution is getting good enough to spot a second
smaller and dimmer bright spot apparently in the same basin as the main
attraction.
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