NASA spacecraft snaps closest ever images of dwarf planet

The pictures have a resolution of 14 kilometres 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 kilometres, 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.