The Fertile Crescent of Space Exploration

The new image of Ceres that NASA released today is doubly thrilling. It unveils more of the landscape of this mysterious in-betweener world--an object classified both as a giant asteroid and as a dwarf planet, a type of object never before observed up close. But it also taps into the unique significance of the crescent shape, both to our culture and to our science. The crescent is one of the most recognizable icons in astronomy. It is the signature element of the oldest known representati