They sparked wild theories of everything from an alien base to volcanoes.
But the mysterious bright patches on the asteroid Ceres that look like giant lights are most likely deposits of a salty substance composed largely of magnesium sulfate, according to Yahoo News.
NASA says it's similar to epsom salts.
They say it was formed when ice sublimated and was later unearthed over time by the impact from asteroids.
What makes it interesting though, scientists say, is that it means Ceres was likely not formed in the asteroid belt, but instead very far away in the outer reaches of the Solar System.
The kinds of stuff that Ceres is made of is found most often where amonia and nitrogen are abundant, the kind of environment that exists in the outer Solar System.
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