By Miriam Kramer, Mashable, SouthFloridaReporter.com, Dec. 10, 2015 – A group of scientists working with Dawn, the first spacecraft to orbit the dwarf planet Ceres, think that they’ve finally figured out the cause of those bright spots in craters on the small world — and sorry folks, it’s not aliens.
The new analysis produced from lab simulations and observations by Dawn, suggests that the brightest patch in at least one crater is actually produced by salts, according to a new study published in the journal Nature this week.
“Our data are consistent with the presence of hydrated magnesium sulfates in the brightest spot of the crater Occator,” Martin Hoffmann and Andreas Nathues, two members of the research team that produced the study, told Mashable via email.
https://youtu.be/YNjktBvsGA0
[vc_btn title=”MORE ON CERES” style=”outline” color=”primary” size=”lg” align=”center” css_animation=”appear” link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2F2015%2F12%2F09%2Fceres-bright-spots-salts%2F%3Futm_content%3Dfeature_title%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_campaign%3Ddaily%26utm_source%3Dnewsletter%26utm_cid%3Dmash-prod-email-topstories%26utm_emailalert%3Ddaily%23pEj_qIaV5PqK|title:MORE%20ON%20CERES|target:%20_blank”]
