NASA has released new photos taken from its Dawn spacecraft that show a second bright spot on the dwarf planet Ceres, which lies between Jupiter and Mars. The bright spot sits adjacent to a brighter spot discovered earlier in the same basin. These images are just a teaser for the images the Dawn should soon be sending back. The spacecraft is expected to enter Ceres’s orbit on March 6. Better resolution from the closer proximity should reveal more about the spots.
“Ceres’ bright spot can now be seen to have a companion of lesser brightness, but apparently in the same basin,” said Chris Russell, principal investigator for the Dawn mission. “This may be pointing to a volcano-like origin of the spots, but we will have to wait for better resolution before we can make such geologic interpretations.”
