 Dawn 's mission profile calls for it to study Ceres from a series of circular polar orbits at successively lower altitudes . It entered its first <unk> orbit ( " <unk> " ) around Ceres at an altitude of 13 @,@ 500 km on 23 April 2015 , staying for only approximately one orbit ( fifteen days ) . The spacecraft will subsequently reduce its orbital distance to 4 @,@ 400 km for its second <unk> orbit ( " survey " ) for three weeks , then down to 1 @,@ 470 km ( " <unk> " ) for two months and then down to its final orbit at 375 km ( " <unk> " ) for at least three months . The spacecraft instrumentation includes a framing camera , a visual and infrared <unk> , and a gamma @-@ ray and neutron detector . These instruments will examine Ceres ' shape and elemental composition . On 13 January 2015 , Dawn took the first images of Ceres at near @-@ Hubble resolution , revealing impact craters and a small high @-@ albedo spot on the surface , near the same location as that observed previously . Additional imaging sessions , at increasingly better resolution took place on 25 January , 4 , 12 , 19 , and 25 February , 1 March , and 10 and 15 April . 
