For months on end, science and space geeks all over the world have been closely following NASA Ceres news, as the Dawn spacecraft, created to find out more about the largest object in the asteroid belt, is closer than ever to the planet, revealing the first things about its mysterious lights.
Science fiction fans have gotten wild with expectation following NASA's Ceres revelations a few months back, when it became apparent that the dwarf planet was emitting strange-looking lights, and conspiracy theorists around Earth were of course saying it was aliens trying to communicate with the human race to send us a message.
According to Space Flight Insider, now NASA's Ceres secrets start to reveal, as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration releases the first images emitted by the Dawn spacecraft after finishing its 15-day orbit around the celestial body.
Earth Sky reports that these first NASA Ceres images show the closest-yet images of the dwarf planet's bright spots, which were taken on May 3 and 4 this year, only a few days back, at 8,400 miles (13,600 km) from the surface.
NASA's Ceres photo of the now-famous bright spots has shown that, in fact, it's not just one bright spot but rather a composition of many smaller ones in the northern hemisphere of the country, and it's still unclear how many there are - or, in fact, what exactly are they.
"Dawn scientists can now conclude that the intense brightness of these spots is due to the reflection of sunlight by highly reflective material on the surface, possibly ice," said Christopher Russell, the Dawn mission's principal investigator from the University of California in Los Angeles, according to UT San Diego.
This is only the first orbiting Dawn is set to make of the planet, and now there's a second one scheduled to begin on May 9 from closer to the planet; it will ultimately descend on June 6, the first-ever spacecraft to reach a dwarf planet.
Don't miss the beautiful NASA Ceres pic above!
