The Dawn spacecraft has been looping around Ceres' night side, but is now closing in for its first science orbit. Because it is approaching Ceres from the night side, a crescent view is still all we are getting. Here is Ceres' north pole, as imaged on April 10, 2015, from a distance of 33,000 km.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
The two mysterious bright spots are not visible in this view. Dawn is moving closer to Ceres and around to its sunlight side. The first science orbit begins on April 23, 2015.
Meanwhile, the ESA Rosetta mission has been finding comet 67P/C-G a very active place to be. As the comet nears the sun and heats up, it is streaming dust and gas to its environment. The dust recently confused Rosetta's ability to find navigation stars, and on March 28, 2015, the spacecraft put itself into safe mode. ESA was soon able to get the spacecraft back to normal operations and move it to a safe distance, but the comet's fireworks are only beginning.
On April 15, 2015, 67P/C-P was shining like this:
Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
Recent Rosetta mission finds are the first detection of molecular Nitrogen at a comet, which tells us that it formed at a very low temperature, and measurement of its magnetic field: the nucleus of 67P/C-G is not magnetized. The bouncy landing pattern of Philae and instruments on board the lander were important in making this last determination.