The latest image from NASA’s Dawn mission has revealed the same unexplained white spot observed by the Hubble Space Telescope as far back as 2003.
Its true nature is one of many mysteries the mission hopes to resolve when it sidles up to the asteroid later this year. Some researchers suspect that Ceres has a subsurface ocean and even geysers like those found on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, especially considering the Herschel telescope found a layer of water vapour surrounding Ceres last year. Could that be linked to the white spot?
One thing is certain: this dwarf planet has yet to give up all of its secrets.