http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/2015/0721-dawn-at-ceres-a-haze-in-occator-rivkin.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3172597/A-mysterious-haze-appeared-Ceres-alien-white-spots-Dawn-discovers-strange-atmosphere-dwarf-planet.html

http://www.space.com/30054-dwarf-planet-ceres-bright-spots-atmosphere.html

The investigation into the dwarf planet Ceres’ mysterious bright spots has taken an intriguing new twist.

The famous bright spots at the bottom of Ceres’ Occator crater appear to be sublimating material into space, creating a localized atmosphere within the walls of the 57-mile-wide (92 kilometers) hole in the ground, new observations by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft suggest.

“If you look at a glancing angle, you can see what seems to be haze, and it comes back in a regular pattern,” Dawn principal investigator Christopher Russell, of UCLA, said during a presentation Tuesday (July 21) at the second annual NASA Exploration Science Forum, which took place at the agency’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.


The bright spots “are possibly subliming, or they’re providing some atmosphere in this particular region of Ceres,” Russell said. The haze covers about half of Occator crater and does not extend beyond the hole’s rim, he added.

This new information would seem to bolster the argument of people who think Ceres’ bright spots are composed of ice, rather than some sort of salt. (Those are the two leading possible explanations at the moment.)
—-

(More in links)

dv said:

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/2015/0721-dawn-at-ceres-a-haze-in-occator-rivkin.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3172597/A-mysterious-haze-appeared-Ceres-alien-white-spots-Dawn-discovers-strange-atmosphere-dwarf-planet.html

http://www.space.com/30054-dwarf-planet-ceres-bright-spots-atmosphere.html

The investigation into the dwarf planet Ceres’ mysterious bright spots has taken an intriguing new twist.

The famous bright spots at the bottom of Ceres’ Occator crater appear to be sublimating material into space, creating a localized atmosphere within the walls of the 57-mile-wide (92 kilometers) hole in the ground, new observations by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft suggest.

“If you look at a glancing angle, you can see what seems to be haze, and it comes back in a regular pattern,” Dawn principal investigator Christopher Russell, of UCLA, said during a presentation Tuesday (July 21) at the second annual NASA Exploration Science Forum, which took place at the agency’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.


The bright spots “are possibly subliming, or they’re providing some atmosphere in this particular region of Ceres,” Russell said. The haze covers about half of Occator crater and does not extend beyond the hole’s rim, he added.

This new information would seem to bolster the argument of people who think Ceres’ bright spots are composed of ice, rather than some sort of salt. (Those are the two leading possible explanations at the moment.)
—-

(More in links)

I didn’t see any information on the Dawn website about this. I presume that this was a verbal announcement in a press conference, with no associated visuals. It’s very exciting, makes Ceres appear a bit comet-like.