Ever since the Dawn spacecraft arrived on Ceres in March, the bright spots on the dwarf planet has spurred a mystery among scientists. And just when conflicting speculations were on a rise, the facts seems to be demystified. Scientists operating the spacecraft have recently discovered that the answer to these dazzling spots are due to some sort of salt.

As of now, scientists choose to be tight-lipped about this finding waiting for Dawn to further close to Ceres’ surface that will enable them to make a final call. Today, two research papers came out in the journal Nature.

One research paper headed by Andreas Nathues from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research the bright areas of Ceres are constituted of a magnesium sulphate called hexahydrite. The paper further explains that due to the impact of asteroids on Ceres, a subsurface made of briny water-ice has become exposed. Hexahydrite which is salty chemical is what remained after the water-ice evaporated.

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The other paper draws its focus to Ceres' origins. The science team of Dawn spacecraft had earlier revealed that there are ammonia-rich clays on Ceres. This new revelation stands to be more counterintuitive than the bright spots making room for more questions and anticipations.

Graphic illustrating the solar sky Source: Getty Images

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Ceres is currently found to be orbiting the Sun in between Jupiter and Mars, presence ammonia-rich clays suggests that the 584-mile surface has formed in the outer solar system. Else, the ammonia ice present in the clay wouldn’t still be there as it would have evaporated quickly because of its proximity to the sun. Looks like Ceres lost its way somewhere and landed at its current orbit unexpectedly. But with Dawn now in its closest orbit around Ceres, let’s hope that we will have more concrete answers to such mysteries soon.

Watch the video below to know what Ceres' bright spots look like.