Strange ‘pyramid’ and highly reflective ‘spots’ add mystery to dwarf planet Ceres

FAILED planet Ceres just keeps getting stranger: Not only are we still no closer to understand its strange lights, NASA’s just spotted a 5km tall ‘pyramid’ jutting out of the dust.

FAILED planet Ceres just keeps getting stranger and stranger: Not only are we still no closer to understand its strange lights, NASA’s just spotted a 5km tall ‘pyramid’ jutting out of the dust.

The more we learn about Ceres, the stranger it becomes.

NASA’s Dawn space probe has been getting closer to the heavily cratered surface. As a result, it’s been sending back clearer pictures.

Shining light ... A more recent, closer image of the strange reflective substance on Ceres which has scientists scratching their heads. Source: NASA

But the mysterious bright spots which have been shining out of a crater even as Ceres approached the ‘dwarf planet’ in its orbit between Mars and Jupiter is no closer to being understood.

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Now it’s found a pyramid-shaped mound looming over an otherwise nondescript field of dust.

Images beamed back by Dawn last week revealed the steep-sloped geological structure jutting from the dwarf planet.

Curiouser & curiouser. @NASA_Dawn sees pyramid-shaped peak & closer views of spots on #Ceres: http://t.co/UAxN8fD66B pic.twitter.com/yabolro8sc

— NASA (@NASA) June 22, 2015

More images are needed before planetary scientists get a grip on what it may be: A giant dirty ice cube? A boulder eroding out of the softer surrounding surface?

Ceres has become the centre of such attention because it is regarded as being a “protoplanet” — the rocky embryo of a world that never fully formed, left over from the time our Solar System was being formed.

Pyramid, or pimple? The 5km-high, steep-sided blob found sticking out of the surface of the dwarf planet Ceres. Source: NASA

It’s hoped understanding Ceres will help us understand the mechanics of our own, and other, worlds.

It seems we have some way to go yet.

Today's image = what the science team has called "Spot 1." The brightest spots are elsewhere. http://t.co/2UnfWTIICd pic.twitter.com/ieyR5S23rn

— NASA's Dawn Mission (@NASA_Dawn) June 16, 2015

Ceres’ strange ‘lights have been drawing most of the attention.

The highly reflective material is clustered in up to eight ‘blobs’ at the bottom of a 90km wide crater. The largest bright spot is some 9km across.

Salt or ice deposits are considered likely. But planetary scientists aren’t willing to rule anything out yet.

The bright spots remain a mystery even as images from @NASA_Dawn reveal #Ceres in new detail. http://t.co/VMaCwgitA6 pic.twitter.com/qdwZcd5Vat

— NASA Solar System (@NASASolarSystem) June 10, 2015

The Dawn space probe has been studying Ceres from a height of 4400km.

It has a variety of cameras operating in visible and infra-red spectra: As more images stream in, scientists will be carefully examining how the bright spots’ white light is captured.

Different minerals reflect light in different ways. Such a signature will help NASA figure out what the stuff may be.

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Ceres will once again shift its orbit early next month. It is expected to settle-in at about 1450km by the middle of August.

From here it is hoped it will get a clearer view of both the highly reflective patches and the mysterious mound.

@JamieSeidel