NASA's Dawn Ceres Arrival Live Stream: Watch Live View Of The Dwarf Planet Here

NASA's Dawn spacecraft will enter the orbit of an alien world on Friday. In the weeks leading up to the historic event, Dawn has been sending back intriguing photos of the dwarf planet Ceres. Located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, Ceres is of great interest to astronomers as they gain new insights into the solar system and planetary formation.

Slooh will provide a live stream of Ceres on Friday beginning at 1 p.m. EST. The broadcast will provide live images of the dwarf planet from Australia, and feature a discussion with Dr. Lucy McFadden, co-investigator for the Dawn mission.

“Few astronomical events are as exciting as seeing a world up-close for the very first time; with Dawn’s imminent arrival at Ceres that’s exactly what we’ve got to look forward to over the coming days, weeks and months," Will Gater, Slooh host, said. "The mission should tell us a great deal about the history and composition of this enigmatic dwarf planet. And, as we’ve seen with those mysterious bright ‘spots’, there will always be thrilling surprises to investigate along the way. I can’t wait to see what Dawn will show us!"

Dawn previously studied the large asteroid Vesta in 2011 and 2012. Data collected from Vesta and Dawn help researchers understand how our solar system was formed.

"These bodies are samples of the building blocks that have formed Venus, Earth and Mars. Vesta-like bodies are believed to have contributed heavily to the core of our planet, and Ceres-like bodies may have provided our water," Carol Raymond, Dawn deputy principal investigator, said in a statement.

Dawn's arrival at Ceres will solve the mystery of the two bright spots that have dominated recent photos. The two points of light are seen in the same basin on the dwarf planet and researchers are awaiting new images from Ceres to identify the source of the bright spots.

You can watch Slooh's Ceres live stream below.