The Dawn mission has just sent back new and closer images of Ceres, and the bright spots now have additional detail. There is still very little that can be discerned regarding their identity, but at least one person on the mission agrees with me that they are likely to be ice. They seem to have remarkably smooth borders, and they are inside a crater. The brightness reminded me of Jupiter's moon Callisto, which has very bright spots, but not so seemingly remarkable because it has so many of them.
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| Surface of Callisto |
My money is still on ice, but the real questions regard how they formed, if they are maintained/refreshed, and why they are in those locations.
Ceres animation shows bright spots
Ceres RC3 animation
New images show many bright spots
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