Photos: The Changing Bright Spots of Dwarf Planet Ceres

A close-up view of a strange bright spot in Occator crater on the dwarf planet Ceres, as seen by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft. Observations of from ground-based telescopes suggest the spots undergo daily changes.

Mosaic showing 130 bright spots on Ceres. Top left: A haze appears above Occator Crater when the sun hits it, suggesting the crater contains subsurface water ice. Top right: A kind of haze also appears above Oxo Crater, the second-brightest structure on Ceres. Bottom: A typical crater without water.

This image of the dwarf planet Ceres, taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, features a large, steep-sided mountain and several intriguing bright spots.

The brightest mystery spots on the dwarf planet Ceres lie in Occator Crater, seen here in an image captured by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft.

The strange bright white spots on the dwarf planet Ceres are seen in this best view yet from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, which captured this image on May 16, 2015.

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft captured this image of the dwarf planet Ceres and its mysterious bright spots on May 4, 2015, from a distance of 8,400 miles (13,500 kilometers).

The strange bright spots on Ceres are easily visible here in these images captured by the visible and infrared mapping spectrometer on NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, which has been orbiting the dwarf planet in the asteroid belt since March.

The brightest spot on Ceres possesses a dimmer companion, which apparently lies in the same basin.

This image of Ceres, taken by NASA’s Dawn probe on Feb. 19, 2015, from a distance of about 29,000 miles (46,000 kilometers), shows two mysterious bright spots on the dwarf planet’s surface.