For a brief period last spring—before Pluto sucked up all the “dwarf planet” mojo—Ceres was the most important minor planetary body in the solar system (as far as Earth was concerned). In March, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft successfully entered into orbit around the 587-mile diet planet, providing scientists with an unparalleled up-close view of the largest object in the main Asteroid …

WASHINGTON — As the clock ticks toward the end of his presidency and he faces a Republican Congress that is in no mood to cooperate, President Obama on Wednesday kicked off a public-relations campaign aimed at building support for his plans to make college more affordable. At an event near Detroit, Mr. Obama announced the creation of a national advisory …