Jun 24, 2015 07:00 AM EDT
NASA Investigates A Mysterious Pyramid Shaped Mountain on Dwarf Planet Ceres

A mysterious, pyramid-shaped mountain above the surface of Ceres is now being investigated by scientists. As NASA's Dawn spacecraft orbited 2,700 miles above the dwarf planet it spotted the mysterious pyramid-shaped mountain. NASA estimated it is more than half the height of Mt. Everest. 

Experts are totally bewildered by this mysterious bright spot shining three-mile-high above from craters of Ceres. After taking images of the mysterious mountain NASA Tweeted: "Curiouser & curiouser. @NASA_Dawn sees pyramid-shaped peak."

The mysterious, pyramid-shaped mountain is beginning to reveal itself as NASA's spacecraft gets closer to Ceres which lies in an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

The mysterious object in a 55-mile-wide crater includes at least eight mysterious bright spots, and it is visible in the large bright area. It is approximately six miles wide as estimated by  scientists.  

This month, the Dawn spacecraft captured a view, and  "shows even more small spots in the crater than were previously visible," NASA stated in providing the latest revelations about a dwarf planet that the agency also notes to have "more in common with Earth and Mars than its rocky neighbors."

The Dawn spacecraft is getting a much closer look at Ceres, and after  June 30  NASA said the spacecraft will "move into its next orbit at an altitude of 900 miles (1,450 kilometers), arriving in early August."

Ceres was discovered in 1801, and it was named after the Roman goddess of agriculture.

Dawn spacecraft first visited the dwarf planet Ceres on 6 March, until 30 June it will remain at its current 2,700-mile altitude.

Carol Raymond, deputy principal investigator for the Dawn mission, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California  stated, "The surface of Ceres has revealed many interesting and unique features," Carol Raymond added: "For example, icy moons in the outer solar system have craters with central pits, but on Ceres central pits in large craters are much more common. "These and other features will allow us to understand the inner structure of Ceres that we cannot sense directly." 

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