As NASA's Dawn spacecraft reaches the mysterious dwarf planet Ceres, scientists became even more intrigued by two bright spots seen on its surface.

First launched in 2007, Dawn is the first spacecraft to ever explore any dwarf planet. Ceres is found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and is the biggest object in the region. It's also one of five known dwarf planets in our solar system.

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The Hubble Space Telescope first observed Ceres from 2003 and 2004 where it helped build the most detailed images of the dwarf planet yet before Ceres arrived last March 6. Mission control zoomed in on the dwarf planet on March 10 and captured more detail than ever before.

These images were 9.5 times clearer and sharper than those from Hubble, and revealed as many as 10 bright spots on the surface of the dwarf planet.

To date, new color images of Ceres presents a dynamic terrain on the surface of the tiny world. New data suggests Ceres could have been geologically active in its history.

This dwarf planet isn't just a floating piece of rock in space, according to Chris Russell, the principal investigator of the Dawn mission for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Data shows it was once active with processes that transformed different materials in different regions. This diversity is further enhanced by these new color images, he adds.

Dawn is now approaching Ceres from its "night side", which has been hidden from scientists before. To date, the bright spots found on the surface as the probe reaches the dwarf planet is still an enigma as their source is still unknown. Some of the bright, luminous spots are found in warmer regions and cooler regions, as well.

Scientists now believe Ceres is made up of 25 percent water compared to the asteroid Vesta, also found in the same asteroid belt, which is found to be extremely dry from Dawn's observations.

The Dawn spacecraft will begin the first scientific phase of the mission on April 23. This phase will be carried out from a distance of 8,400 miles from Ceres.

Hopefully, the team can decipher the bright spots and pinpoint their sources. This study was published in the journal, Nature.

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