The closer we get to Ceres, the more perplexing the dwarf planet grows. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has found several more bright spots as well as a pyramid-like peak jutting out of the frigid world’s surface.

The discovery is painting an increasingly complex portrait of one of the biggest "fossils" from the early solar system – one that may have thrown planetary scientists for a little loop.

What are those bright spots? As Dawn nears Ceres, mystery remains
What are those bright spots? As Dawn nears Ceres, mystery remains
“I expected to be surprised because we knew so little about Ceres,” Christopher Russell, Dawn’s principal investigator and a planetary scientist at UCLA, said in an email. “I never expected bright spots and a pyramid to be the surprises.”

Ceres is one of five dwarf planets in the solar system (a list that includes Pluto) and the largest member of the asteroid belt, the vast ring of rocky debris that stretches between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

Asteroids are the building blocks of planets that never came to be, and scientists hoped that by studying two of the largest protoplanets in the belt – first the lumpy asteroid Vesta, and now the dwarf planet Ceres – the Dawn mission could probe the early development of our solar system.

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By the time the spacecraft arrived at Ceres in March, speculation had already grown about the nature of the dwarf planet’s surface. Many researchers had suspected that Ceres, which seemed to be rich in water ice, would have fairly smooth, young terrain.

[link to www.latimes.com]