New images taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft focus on mysterious bright, white spots in a crater on the dwarf planet, Ceres.

NASA has unveiled incredible new photos of the dwarf planet Ceres and its peculiar bright spots – which have amazed and puzzled scientists. The composite photo contains a picture of the bright spots taken at a short exposure meant to capture the patches in detail, combined with an image of the surrounding landscape taken at a normal exposure.

For about three weeks now, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has been mapping Ceres’ surface while orbiting it at a steady altitude of 915 miles (1,470 kilometers).

In contrast, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft sped within 7,800 miles of Pluto, the much more familiar but vastly more distant dwarf planet on July 14 and will be transmitting its findings back to Earth for yet another year.

Rayman also said that the team expects the probe to perform a more detailed scientific analysis that could help mission investigators better understand the chemical and geological makeup of the alien formations.

Within the crater there is a central cluster of bright spots surrounded by other bright points in differing sizes. Scientists speculate it could be ice and salt reflecting sunlight.

The space agency said these bright spots were first detected by Dawn’s instruments during its approach to Ceres.

While the image does not shed any particular light into the glowing spots’s composition, those answers should be coming in the very near future. The features are part of a complex structure that scientists say is strong evidence that the dwarf planet – the biggest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter – remains geologically active.

“The bright spots in this configuration make Ceres unique from anything we’ve seen before in the solar system”.

Dawn scientists note the rim of Occator crater is almost vertical in some places, where it rises steeply for nearly two km.

Want to see Ceres for yourself?

The Daybreak spacecraft is predicted to map your entire floor of Ceres six occasions throughout its present orbit, permitting researchers to assemble stereo views of floor options and 3D maps.