article_snippet.sent: Dawn observed Ceres completing one full rotation, which lasted about nine hours.
article_snippet.sent: The Dawn spacecraft pulled into orbit last  month around Ceres Ceres in the asteroid belt.
article_snippet.sent: The probe is currently on the dark side of Ceres and won't emerge until April.
article_snippet.sent: There is high interest in the mission because Ceres is one possible destination for human colonisation given Ceres abundance of ice.
article_snippet.sent: Ceres rotates in this sped-up movie comprised of images taken by Nasa's Dawn mission during Ceres approach to the dwarf planet.
article_snippet.sent: Soon California will reveal myriad secrets Ceres has held since the dawn of the solar system.'
article_snippet.sent: Dawn will be captured into Ceres orbit in March, marking the first visit to a dwarf planet by a spacecraft (artist's impression pictured)
article_snippet.sent: Since launching in 2007, Dawn has already visited Vesta, a giant protoplanet currently located 104 million miles (168 million km) away from Ceres.