The sharpest and closest-yet images of the dwarf planet Ceres have been snapped by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft on its approach to the mysterious world.
The series of images of Ceres were taken on February 4, from a distance of about 145,000 km.
The pictures have a resolution of 14 km per pixel, and represent the sharpest images to date of Ceres, NASA said.
After the spacecraft arrives and enters into orbit around the dwarf planet, it will study the intriguing world in great detail.
Ceres, with a diameter of 950 km, is the largest object in the main asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter.
Dawn’s mission to Ceres is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.