Ceres

New analysis of data collected during NASA's Dawn mission has offered some compelling answers to long-standing questions about the makeup of Ceres, starting with presence of a 25-mile-deep reservoir of brine beneath the dwarf planet's surface.

Astronomers have taken the clearest-ever shots of asteroid Pallas. The new images revealed the surface of this tiny world to be heavily dotted with craters, to the point where it’s been dubbed the “golf ball asteroid.”

In 2006, Pluto was downgraded from planet to dwarf planet – and now, based on the same definition an object in the asteroid belt may need to be upgraded from asteroid to dwarf planet. New observations of asteroid Hygiea suggest it fits the criteria.

After 11 years exploring the asteroid belt, NASA's Dawn mission has come to the end. The space agency confirmed that all contact has been lost with the deep space probe after it failed to make two scheduled communications with the Deep Space Network (DSN) on October 31 and November 1, 2018.

As NASA's Dawn deep space mission to Ceres draws to its conclusion, the spacecraft is maneuvering into its closest orbit yet to the dwarf planet by executing a series of extended correction burns that will send it on a spiraling trajectory to bring it to within 30 miles of the surface.

Fresh research has been published detailing the processes responsible for the creation of the enigmatic features marking the surface of the dwarf planet Ceres, including the bright spots at the famous Occator Crater, and the so-called "lonely mountain."

Two new studies have used data gathered by NASA’s Dawn mission to determine that the dwarf planet Ceres’ salty, icy crust could be the remains of an ancient global ocean – and there may still be some liquid water locked up deep beneath the surface.

​​Back in May 2015, NASA's Dawn spacecraft became the first man-made object to enter orbit around a dwarf planet. It has circled Ceres since, with NASA extending its mission not once but now twice. The latest lifeline sends the unmanned probe closer to the surface of Ceres than ever before.

Google Maps is both amazing and a little terrifying at times. Not content to just map out almost every corner of the Earth, Google has now added the ability to explore 12 other worlds in our little corner of the galaxy.

​One of the weirdest features of the dwarf planet Ceres is a series of bright spots in the center of the large Occator crater. New research suggests the bright material is actually much younger than the rest of the crater and that the central dome could be the result of cryovolcanic activity.

​Organic molecules have been spotted on the dwarf planet Ceres. The discovery was made by the Dawn mission, which has previously found evidence of water ice at the planet’s poles and carbonate minerals. Together, astronomers say that Ceres now has the ingredients and favorable conditions for life.

NASA's Dawn deep-space probe has discovered ice inside the eternally shadowed craters of the polar regions of the dwarf planet Ceres, where it survives in the crater interiors thanks to the extreme cold there.