NASA/JPL's DAWN spacecraft team now calls the Ceres crater of mysterious bright spots Occator (oh-KAH-tor), one of twelve “assistant gods” to Ceres of Greek lore. Occator is the one that harrows the ground with heavy metal breaking up dirt clods, removing weeds and covering seeds.
In an August 6, 2015, newly released NASA/JPL video produced from DAWN spacecraft's data, Marc Rayman, Dawn Mission Director, asks,“How can you not be mesmerized by those glowing spots?" (See 080615 NASA video below).
The baffling bright spots are in the 60-mile diameter crater named Occatur. The crater is 2 miles deep and Dr. Rayman says that the mysterious bright spots "reflect a great deal more sunlight than the rest of the surface material, but scientists have not yet determined what it is about their composition or structure that is responsible for the extreme brightness. ...To discover their real nature, we need to get more data from lower altitudes."
To read more, click here.