A diary of pictures.
Ceres is the largest member of the asteroid belt, and was the first dwarf planet discovered, in 1801. It is a surviving member of the population of protoplanets that formed rather quickly in the early solar nebula, and then assembled into the terrestrial planets and the cores of the giant planets. NASA's Dawn spacecraft is now in its final weeks before arriving at Ceres.
This is Ceres, seen through the Hubble telescope.
This is Ceres, as imaged by the Dawn spacecraft on Jan 13, 2015 from a distance of 383,000 kilometers.
Here is Ceres, imaged by Dawn on Jan 25, 2015, from 237,000 km.
Ceres, imaged by Dawn on Feb. 4, 2015 from 145,000 km.
Ceres, imaged by Dawn on Feb 12, 2015 from 83,000 km.
Another set of images will be taken on Feb 19, then again on Feb. 25 and again on Mar 1.
Dawn enters orbit around Ceres in March.