A Dwarf Planet

Artistic concept of the surface of Ceres - the dwarf planet orbiting in the asteroids belt - and some props just for fun.
It's the biggest member of the asteroids belt, between Mars and Jupiter: one third of our Moon and half of Pluto, but massive enough to assume an almost spherical shape, it can be classified as a dwarf planet.
The map I drew (August 2013) is obviously an artistic concept: It's based on two blurred images from the Hubble space telescope and two infrared images from the Hawaii's Keck II observatory.
HTS: link , link
Keck II: link , link
_{Made with 3D Studio Max and After Effects. No stocks. I drew every single pixel of the scene.}

ps:
Wait the first turn of the planet if the animation doesn't seems so fluid.
It would be a loop animation, except for some Internet Explorer if so, right click > active loop and play.

recently featured on NASA's Dawn mission site!
Wallpaper poster: streincorp.deviantart.com/art/…

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Ricostruzione artistica della superficie del pianeta minore Cerere, orbitante nella fascia di asteroidi tra Marte e Giove.

Aspettate che il pianeta completi il primo giro se l'animazione vi sembra "scattosa".
Solo l'Internet Explorer è lento a caricarlo e non sempre è attivato il loop T_T: basta cliccare col destro e attivare loop (o ciclo) e play (o ripeti) _{oppure usare qualsiasi altro browser decente.}