Ceres will be the first dwarf planet seen up close when NASA’s Dawn spacecraft arrives on March 6th 2015. For now it has taken photos for navigational purposes however these still rival the quality of the best images previously taken of Ceres by the Hubble space telescope.
Ceres from Hubble
These views of Ceres were taken from the Hubble Space Telescope in December 2003 and January 2004. This was when Ceres was still classed as an asteroid, the Dwarf Planet definition not being introduced until 2006.
Ceres from Dawn
Date: January 13th 2015
Distance: 383,000 km
Date: January 27th 2015
Distance: 237,000 km
Keep an eye on this page and the other Dawn Galleries for more updates in 2015.
Other Ceres Galleries: Hubble Images – NASA’s Photo Journal Gallery – Official Dawn Gallery