As NASA's Dawn spacecraft continues to orbit the dwarf planet Ceres, it is allowing astronomers to get a better, closer view of its mysterious white spots.
According to BBC News, the new images of Ceres' white spot were captured at a distance of 13,600km. NASA astronomers determined the bright spot was actually a cluster.
The largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, Ceres is the first dwarf planet to ever be orbited by a manmade spacecraft. The newly released images come after Dawn completed one trip around the dwarf planet and is closing in for a tighter orbit.
"Dawn scientists can now conclude that the intense brightness of these spots is due to the reflection of sunlight by highly reflective material on the surface, possibly ice," a Dawn mission principal investigator Christopher Russell, of the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a press release.
NASA also noted Dawn was the first spacecraft to orbit two different objects in the solar system after arriving at Ceres after visiting with Vesta, a giant asteroid for 14 months in 2011.
"On May 9, the spacecraft powered on its ion engine to begin the month-long descent toward its second mapping orbit, which it will enter on June 6," NASA said in its release. "In this next phase, Dawn will circle Ceres about every three days at an altitude of 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers) -- three times closer than the previous orbit. During this phase, referred to as Dawn's survey orbit, the spacecraft will comprehensively map the surface to begin unraveling Ceres' geologic history and assess whether the dwarf planet is active. The spacecraft will pause twice to take images of Ceres as it spirals down into this new orbit."
