We just got the closest look we've ever had at the tiny planet on the other side of Mars

Dwarf planet Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt — a grouping of small rocky bodies that separates Mars from the outer planets in our solar system.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

Scientists have obsessed over Ceres ever since Dawn returned images that showed mysterious bright spots speckling the planet.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

We now know the spots are likely salt deposits, but Ceres has a lot of other striking features that we can now see up close.

NASA

Scientists think they've finally solved the mystery of the strange bright spots on dwarf planet Ceres >

Dawn captured this latest batch of images — the closest view of the surface we've ever seen — from just 240 miles above the planet. The resolution is about 120 feet per pixel.

NASA

The series of images shows a chain of craters called Gerber Catena.

NASA

Scientists think that many of the craters and troughs on Ceres came from asteroids pummeling the surface.

NASA

Ceres appears shrouded in shadows here since at the time this image was taken, the sun was 4 degrees north of the equator. "If you were standing this close to Ceres' south pole, the sun would never get high in the sky during the course of a nine-hour Cerean day," NASA explains.

NASA

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Now that Dawn's mission is over, the spacecraft will likely become a permanent satellite around Ceres, though it won't get as close as it did to the surface for these images ever again.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA