NASA's Dawn spacecraft has started its approach to Ceres and new images have been released. The images are 27 pixels, but will get better as Dawn gets closer to Ceres' orbit on March 6, according to a press release by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
"We know so much about the solar system and yet so little about dwarf planet Ceres," said Marc Rayman, Dawn's chief engineer and mission director. "Now, Dawn is ready to change that."
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope took the best images of Ceres in 2003 and 2004, according to JPL, as the recent photos are only 80 percent of Hubble's resolution. Dawn's next set of images (at the end of January) are promised to be even better than Hubble's.
"The team is very excited to examine the surface of Ceres in never-before-seen detail," said Chris Russell, principal investigator for the Dawn mission. "We look forward to the surprises this mysterious world may bring."
