North pole of spinning dwarf planet Ceres glows in the sunlight

(Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA)

It’s the sun-lit north pole of a dwarf planet, in more detail than we’ve ever seen before. These images of Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, were snapped by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft last Friday.

The spacecraft captured the photos from a distance of 33,000 kilometres as it passed over the dwarf planet’s pole after more than a month on its dark side. It should soon gather views of other features, including a mysterious set of bright spots on the surface that could contain watery volcanoes.

Meanwhile, NASA’s New Horizons probe is speeding its way towards Pluto and has sent back the first blurry colour photos of the dwarf planet and its largest moon, Charon. We’ll get our best-ever view of Pluto when the spacecraft flies past it on 14 July.