The 950km-wide object, known as Ceres, has been pictured at a resolution that exceeds anything seen previously by telescopes, even Hubble.

Nasa’s Dawn spacecraft can see details on the  icy rock’s  surface down to a scale of 22km per pixel.  The new picture was taken on Monday, January 26th  from a distance of 237,000km – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31009791

See also: http://www.space.com/22891-ceres-dwarf-planet.html

and http://news.discovery.com/space/asteroids-meteors-meteorites/nasa-spacecraft-ready-to-unlock-ceres-mysteries-150203.htm

Discovered in 1801, Ceres was once known as a planet, then reclassified as an asteroid. It was recast as a dwarf planet, like Pluto, in 2006.