With its dark, heavily cratered surface interrupted by tantalizing bright spots, Ceres may not remind you of our home planet Earth at first glance. The dwarf planet, which orbits the Sun in the vast ...

Since the first sighting of the first-discovered and largest asteroid in our solar system was made in 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi, astronomers and planetary scientists have pondered the make-up of this ...

These two views of Ceres were acquired by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on Feb. 12, 2015, from a distance of about 52,000 miles (83,000 km) as the dwarf planet rotated. The images have been magnified from ...

The Earth’s energy budget is a complicated thing. But understanding how much of the sun’s energy hits the planet and where, how much energy the planet emits back, and the key role clouds play in that ...

Data from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft show that there is an abundance of carbon on Ceres. Dawn ended its mission on November 1, 2018. However, the spacecraft has remained in orbit around Ceres 257 million ...

Astronomers have concluded that the surface of dwarf planet Ceres is rich in organic matter. Data from NASA's Dawn spacecraft indicate that Ceres's surface may contain several times the concentration ...

Thought you'd like to see the latest photo of the asteroid Ceres taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft from a distance of just 52,000 miles. We take a closer look to find out what those bright spots might ...