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Salt in Occator Crater

Salt in Occator Crater
Salt in Occator Crater Dawn captured this view inside Occator Crater on March 26 from an altitude of 240 miles (385 kilometers). We have explained that the bright areas are salts, which reflect much more sunlight than typical materials on Ceres. Recent analysis of Dawn's infrared spectra shows the salt is mostly sodium carbonate. (This is the brightest region on Ceres, but you can see another of the many reflective deposits in one of the pictures below of two adjoining craters.) Occator Crater formed 80 million years ago. Another part of this geologically young crater is shown immediately below. Full image and caption. NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA