But so far we haven’t seen any close-ups of Ceres, and there’s a good reason why: the Dawn spacecraft has joined the dark side. Not the Dark Side–just the dark side of this little dwarf planet.

Astronomers are shining light on the dark objects in a narrow part of the ... much like the belt’s largest object, the dwarf planet Ceres, including minerals on their surfaces that formed ...

Dwarf planet Ceres is shown in these false-color renderings, which highlight differences in surface materials. ( Credit: NASA/JPL-CalTech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA) HELSINKI ...

Astronomers are slowly shining light on the dark objects hovering in a narrow ... the dwarf planet Ceres, including minerals on their surfaces that formed through reactions with liquid water.