3-D imagery allows you to 'fly' over dwarf planet Ceres

Lisa Peterson
Updated
White Spot Mystery on Ceres Will Hopefully Be Solved Soon
White Spot Mystery on Ceres Will Hopefully Be Solved Soon



Ceres is a dwarf planet (though it's the largest planet in the asteroid belt) that was discovered back in 1801. It peaked NASA scientists' interest in exploration, sparking the launch of the Dawn Mission to learn more about Ceres and Vesta, the other largest piece in the asteroid belt.

And now Ceres can be seen up close with unbelievable detail with images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft.

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NASA explains how the images of Ceres rotating for one full day were taken below:

%shareLinks-quote="The images come from Dawn's first mapping orbit at Ceres, at an altitude of 8,400 mile (13,600 kilometers), as well as navigational images taken from 3,200 miles (5,100 kilometers) away. " type="quote" author="NASA.gov" authordesc=""%

Check out another NASA mission focusing on the exploration of Mars in the slideshow below:

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