First impressions count - unless you're Ceres.

Last month, the asteroid was re-classified as a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), and now new images of its surface reveal a surprisingly diverse surface terrain, scientists say.

"We thought Ceres had a flat surface," said Benoit Carry, from the Observatoire Paris-Meudon, "but our images show that it is rich in surface features."

Carry's team has produced 360 infrared images of Ceres while observing it in rotation at the Keck observatory in Mauna Kea.

The results were presented here at the Division of Planetary Sciences meeting in Pasadena, California.

The subdued black and white images, which map 80% of the dwarf planet, suggest a textured surface, but not its physical properties.

Dark and bright spots in the images might be crater impacts, mineral deposits or the effects of space weathering, said Mr Carry.

3D model

The images are the first of an asteroid/dwarf planet using infrared and advanced adaptive optics, a technique that uses deformable mirrors on a telescope to correct the blurring caused by turbulence in Earth's atmosphere.

[link to news.bbc.co.uk]