Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDAThe dwarf planet Ceres is now unwrapped. “A faint smidge of light amidst the stars,” says Marc Rayman of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft—looking like “a big celestial dragonfly,” says Rayman—is approaching a third anniversary orbiting Ceres. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDACredit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDAAs Dawn approached Ceres, scientists saw a multitude of bright spots, four times brighter than the rest of the surface, all within gigantic Occator Crater, 57 miles across. NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDAStill, Rayman is skeptical that life exists on Ceres—even primitive microbial life.

Source: Forbes January 29, 2018 01:00 UTC