Bright spots of Ceres reveal unexpected changes

Bright spots of Ceres reveal unexpected changes

New observations of the dwarf planet Ceres, made by the HARPS spectrograph at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile show its bright spots become brighter during the day and show other variations, not only those changes related to planet's rotation. The results…

Ceres imaged from the lowest orbital altitude ever

Ceres imaged from the lowest orbital altitude ever

NASA's Dawn spacecraft collected new detailed images of the cratered and fractured southern hemisphere surface of the dwarf planet Ceres on December 10, 2015. The spacecraft took the images while cruising in the lowest and final orbit of the small planet. Dawn…

Two new studies offer new clues to Ceres’ bright spots and origins

Two new studies offer new clues to Ceres’ bright spots and origins

Two new studies reveal some of Ceres' well-kept secrets, including highly anticipated insights about mysterious bright features found all over the dwarf planet's surface. In one study, scientists identify this bright material as a kind of salt, while the…