The largest object located in the main asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) is the dwarf planet named Ceres.  At 590 miles across and with it’s spherical shape Ceres was once referred to as a planet. It’s probably the planet you’ve never heard of and over time it was demoted to asteroid status until 2006 when it was properly branded a “dwarf planet” by the IAU. This mysterious and elusive world was discovered in 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi, an Italian Catholic priest, mathematician, and astronomer.

Ceres is about to get it’s first visitor from Earth. The Dawn spacecraft is currently closing in on Ceres at a rate of about 250 miles per hour and will have a close encounter with it on March 6, 2015. Dawn’s work at Ceres will not be short lived as it will slip into orbit around it and begin a five month run of scientific observations.

The Dawn spacecraft is powered by a futuristic ion propulsion system that was previously used on the Deep Space 1 mission. Ion propulsion allows for less fuel to be carried on board which means a lighter and smaller spacecraft, and thus a smaller rocket is needed at lift off to achieve orbit.  You can think of it like a hybrid car of sorts.

Dawn also orbited and explored Vesta in 2011 and 2012. Vesta is classified as an asteroid and is the second most massive body in the asteroid belt.

The video above from the Dawn spacecraft was taken over the period of an hour on January 13, 2015. Dawn was at that time about 238,000 miles from Ceres. Stay tuned as Dawn closes in and reveals what are sure to be many surprises at Ceres. The view will only get better from this point on.