The mysterious bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres ‘brighten’ during the day - and change constantly.

The ‘spots’ were first seen by NASA’s Dawn Probe last year, and the strange, glittering object in the Occator crater, sparked wild speculation that it was an alien base.

It’s not - but it’s certainly very odd.

Researchers using the HARPS spectrograph at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile spotted not only the changes expected as Ceres rotates, but also that the spots brighten during the day and also show other variations.

These observations suggest that the material of the spots is volatile and evaporates in the warm glow of sunlight.

Paolo Molaro, lead author of the study: ‘As soon as the Dawn spacecraft revealed the mysterious bright spots on the surface of Ceres, I immediately thought of the possible measurable effects from Earth.

‘As Ceres rotates the spots approach the Earth and then recede again, which affects the spectrum of the reflected sunlight arriving at Earth.’

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