Two Inexplicable REALLY Bright Spots On Dwarf Planet Ceres Will Have Make You Marvel

This image was taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft of dwarf planet Ceres on Feb. 19 from a distance of nearly 29,000 miles. 
It shows that the brightest spot on Ceres has a dimmer companion, which apparently lies in the same basin. 
 NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

What the heck?

Two bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres, which orbits in an asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars 266 million miles from earth, have scientists at NASA puzzled.

But last week, at 29,000 miles away, the probe's photographs captured yet a second, smaller luminous area that appears to be emanating from the same basin on the 590 mile wide celestial object made of rock and ice.The larger bright area was previously revealed in photos taken by the Hubble telescope and the agency’s Dawn spacecraft which is approaching the planet and is expected to enter its orbit March 6, according to NASA mission control.

“This is truly unexpected and still a mystery to us," said Andreas Nathues, one of the mission’s lead investigators.

UCLA’s Chris Russell, who is the principal investigator for the Dawn mission, said they may be some kind of geological formation.

"This may be pointing to a volcano-like origin of the spots, but we will have to wait for better resolution before we can make such geologic interpretations," Russell said.

Artist concept showing the Dawn spacecraft with Ceres and Vesta. — William K. Hartmann Courtesy of UCLA

The Dawn space probe was launched in Sept. 2007 to study Ceres as well as the asteroid Vesta, which are believed to have been formed early in the history of our solar system.

The dwarf planet, which was discovered in 1801 by Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi, is about the size of Texas. NASA describes it has having a "rocky inner core, an icy mantle, and a thin, dusty outer crust and possibly an interior that "is layered like those of terrestrial planets such as Earth."

Of course, the lights are capturing the imagination of space enthusiasts around the world.

(ET - are you phoning home?)

Here’s what they are saying on Twitter. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/feb/26/bright-light-ceres-scientists-baffled/