The 3D Globe of Ceres

Last week the New York Times created a simple interactive 3d globe of Pluto from the latest NASA imagery. The NYT's Pluto Globe uses a number of images of the planet to create an interactive globe of Pluto. This week it is the turn of the dwarf planet Ceres.

Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid-belt which lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. In September 2007 NASA launched the Dawn space probe on a mission to study the protoplanets Vesta and Ceres. Dawn is currently orbiting Ceres and has captured some amazing imagery of the planet.

The NYT's Ceres Globe uses imagery from Dawn to create an interactive globe of Ceres. The globe provides two map views, a false-color map and a gray-scale map.