What Is This Intriguing Brightest Area Of Ceres That NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Captured? (Video)

NASA's Dawn spacecraft features the brightest yet an intriguing area of Ceres, the Occator crater. This image was taken about 920 miles above Ceres on Oct. 16, 2016, from the fifth science orbit of Dawn spacecraft.

The brightest area on Ceres stands out amid shadowy, cratered terrain in this view from our @NASA_Dawn spacecraft: https://t.co/Cwl8YXLPkh pic.twitter.com/YzhWjPoTyl

— NASA (@NASA) November 20, 2016

Occator crater also referred to as impact crater is located on the dwarf planet Ceres. It contains "Spot 5," which is the brightest of the bright spots that were observed by the Dawn spacecraft. The crater was named after Occator, the Roman god of the harrow and a helper to Ceres.

In December 2015, the scientists theorized that the bright spots on Ceres or the Occator crater may be related to a kind of salt, which contains magnesium sulfate hexahydrite. The spots are also linked with ammonia-rich clays. On the other hand, in June 2016, the scientists said that the bright spot is mostly sodium carbonate. This means that hydrothermal activity was involved in generating the bright spots.

NASA reports that the impact that shaped the crater millions of years ago, uncovered the material that blanketed the area outside the crater. This might have triggered the upsurge of salty liquid. Marc Rayman, Dawn's chief engineer and mission director, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena in California, said that the image captures the wonder of soaring above this fascinating, unique world that Dawn is the first to explore.

Beside the image of Occator crater, Dawn also featured an image of Ceres that approximates how the dwarf's planet's colors would be visible to the human eye. It was taken from Dawn's first science orbit in 2015.

Dawn spacecraft has captured thousands of images and other data from Ceres since its orbit on March 6, 2015. It studied Ceres for more than eight months at a height of about 240 miles. Meanwhile, in October, Dawn spacecraft was at its 920-mile altitude and took images and other information about Ceres.