 The robotic NASA spacecraft Dawn entered orbit around Ceres on 6 March 2015 . Pictures with a resolution previously <unk> were taken during imaging sessions starting in January 2015 as Dawn approached Ceres , showing a <unk> surface . Two distinct bright spots ( or high @-@ albedo features ) inside a crater ( different from the bright spots observed in earlier Hubble images ) were seen in a 19 February 2015 image , leading to speculation about a possible <unk> origin or outgassing . On 3 March 2015 , a NASA spokesperson said the spots are consistent with highly reflective materials containing ice or salts , but that <unk> is unlikely . On 11 May 2015 , NASA released a higher @-@ resolution image showing that , instead of one or two spots , there are actually several . On 9 December 2015 , NASA scientists reported that the bright spots on Ceres may be related to a type of salt , particularly a form of <unk> containing magnesium sulfate <unk> ( <unk> · <unk> ) ; the spots were also found to be associated with ammonia @-@ rich <unk> . In June 2016 , near @-@ infrared spectra of these bright areas were found to be consistent with a large amount of sodium carbonate , ( Na 
