Dwarf planet Ceres comes into view

The Dawn spacecraft has snapped the most detailed photos to date of the dwarf planet Ceres. Craters and mysterious bright patches dot the landscape in a pair of images taken February 12 when Dawn was just 83,000 kilometers from Ceres, the largest body in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Launched in 2007, Dawn spent 14 months investigating the asteroid Vesta before heading off to Ceres, which it will begin to orbit on March 6. Once there it will spend the rest of the year mapping the dwarf planet, hopefully finding clues about the formation of the solar system.