When the Dawn probe approached Ceres, it found a striking feature. Was it water ice? A layer of salt? Or something else?
Ion the Prize
The Dawn probe now in orbit around Ceres reached the dwarf planet thanks to a rocket engine known as an ion thruster.
A Glorious Dawn
The Dawn spacecraft is on its way to Ceres, and has started sending back new images of the dwarf planet.
Alas, Poor Ceres
In 1801 a new planet was discovered in our solar system. Just twenty years earlier the planet Uranus was discovered beyond the orbit of Saturn, and was the first planet discovered since the dawn of civilization. This new planet was named after the Roman goddess of agriculture, Ceres.