The intrigue surrounding Ceres continues to deepen as a NASA probe gets closer to the dwarf planet.<\/p>\n
The new photos of Ceres from NASA\u2019s Dawn spacecraft, which is scheduled to arrive in orbit around Ceres on the night of March 5, reveal that a puzzling bright spot on the dwarf planet\u2019s surface has a buddy of sorts.<\/p>\n
\u201cCeres\u2019 bright spot can now be seen to have a companion of lesser brightness, but apparently in the same basin,\u201d Dawn principal investigator Chris Russell, of UCLA, said in a statement. \u201cThis may be pointing to a volcanolike origin of the spots, but we will have to wait for better resolution before we can make such geologic interpretations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dawn took the new images on Feb. 19, when it was about 29,000 miles (46,000 kilometers) from Ceres \u2014 still too far away to give scientists a good look at the peculiar spots.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe brightest spot continues to be too small to resolve with our camera, but despite its size, it is brighter than anything else on Ceres,\u201d Andreas Nathues, lead investigator for the framing camera team at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Gottingen, Germany, said in the same statement. \u201cThis is truly unexpected and still a mystery to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dawn will begin investigating the many mysteries of Ceres \u2014 the largest body in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter \u2014 in earnest soon enough. After reaching Ceres\u2019 orbit next week, the probe will spend about six weeks working down to its first science orbit, getting there on April 23.<\/p>\n
Dawn will then study Ceres from a series of orbits until June 2016, when the $466 million mission will end.<\/p>\n
Dawn launched in September 2007 to study the asteroid belt\u2019s two largest denizens, the 590-mile-wide (950 km) Ceres, and Vesta, a protoplanet about 330 miles (530 km) in diameter. Dawn\u2019s observations of these planetary building blocks should reveal key insights about the solar system\u2019s early days and the planet formation process, mission team members say.<\/p>\n
The spacecraft orbited Vesta from July 2011 until September 2012, when it began the trek to Ceres. When Dawn gets there, it will become the first probe ever to orbit two different bodies beyond the Earth-moon system.<\/p>\n