New NASA images of dwarf planet feature ‘intriguing’ bright spots

New images taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft focus on mysterious bright, white spots in a crater on the dwarf planet, Ceres.

The spots “gleam with mystery” and it’s “anyone’s guess” what the spots could be, according to the NASA Dawn team.

People have been encouraged to vote in a poll with options including volcano, geyser, rock, ice or salt deposit.

The Dawn team have also noted that the rim of the Occator crater is “almost vertical in some places”, and rises steeply for almost two kilometres.

Dawn has provided the closest views of the crater with “better-defined” shapes of the spots, which scientists will use to research the spots.

“Dawn has transformed what was so recently a few bright dots into a complex and beautiful, gleaming landscape,” chief engineer and mission director Marc Rayman said.

“Soon, the scientific analysis will reveal the geological and chemical nature of this mysterious and mesmerizing extra-terrestrial scenery.”

The images were taken at an altitude of 1,470km during Dawn’s third 11-day cycle of mapping Ceres’ surface.

Dawn will map Ceres at total of six times over the next two months, with each mapping cycle requiring 14 orbits and allowing scientists to create stereo views and 3D maps.

The spacecraft arrived at Ceres on March 6, after orbiting protoplanet Vesta in 2011 and 2012.