NASA Nears Ceres Mystery Spots: Pyramid-Like Peak Spotted

The dwarf planet Ceres has presented quite the mystery: bright spots in a cluster. The spots were first spotted around the beginning of this year, and as the Dawn spacecraft grows nearer we've seen the spots become more clear. The latest shots show them from the closest distance yet, and among the other images is yet another mystery: a pyramid-like mountain sitting out on a barren landscape all by itself. This latest shot of the bright spots was taken on June 9.

Earlier this week NASA released the newest set of images, the latest of which shows a much closer view of the bright spots. Now that we've a closer look, we see that there are indeed two "spots", but each is a cluster, with the one on the left being considerably brighter and more tightly packed than the cluster on the right.

The crater where the spots are located is said to be about 55 miles wide, and the brightest spot in the cluster is though to be about 6 miles wide. Some sort of "highly reflective material" is causing the glare, and the top thoughts at this point is that it is either salt or ice. NASA says it is "considering other options, too", however.

Joining in on the mysteries is the new pyramid-like structure you can see in the image about, which is said to be a mountain extending about 3 miles above the landscape. Dawn will be staying at its current altitude until the end of this month, then continue to lower orbits.

SOURCE: NASA