It was first considered a planet, then it was demoted to asteroid, the first of its kind, and then it was classified as a dwarf planet. Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words? 47th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Video (3:34): Ceres "Bright Spots" - Mystery solved (10 August 2020), "The MeanPlane (Invariable plane) of the Solar System passing through the barycenter", "AstDyS-2 Ceres Synthetic Proper Orbital Elements", "Asteroid Ceres P_constants (PcK) SPICE kernel file", "The permanently shadowed regions of dwarf planet Ceres", "The surface composition of Ceres: Discovery of carbonates and iron-rich clays", "Dawn Data Reveal Ceres' Complex Crustal Evolution", "Ice Volcanoes and More: Dwarf Planet Ceres Continues to Surprise", "NASA Spacecraft Becomes First to Orbit a Dwarf Planet", "Dawn Spacecraft Begins Approach to Dwarf Planet Ceres", "Ceres: Keeping Well-Guarded Secrets for 215 Years", "Giuseppe Piazzi and the Discovery of Ceres", "Amalgamator Features 2003: 200 Years Ago", "When Did the Asteroids Become Minor Planets? [105][106], Dawn's arrival in a stable orbit around Ceres was delayed after, close to reaching Ceres, it was hit by a cosmic ray, making it take another, longer route around Ceres in back, instead of a direct spiral towards it.[167]. William Thomas Thornton (1878) "Epode 16", Gaherty, Geoff; "How to Spot Giant Asteroid Vesta in Night Sky This Week", 3 August 2011, Approximately forty percent that of Australia, a third the size of the US or Canada, 12× that of the UK. [96] In June 2016, near-infrared spectra of these bright areas were found to be consistent with a large amount of sodium carbonate (Na2CO3), implying that recent geologic activity was probably involved in the creation of the bright spots. [166] In February 2017, organics (tholins) were detected on Ceres in Ernutet crater (see image). With a diameter of 940 km (580 mi), Ceres is both the largest of the asteroids and the only dwarf planet inside Neptune's orbit. It was discovered on January 1, 1801, by Giuseppe Piazzi, and is named after the Roman goddess Ceres — the goddess of growing plants, the harvest, and motherly love. What made you want to look up Ceres? [99][100][102] In July 2018, NASA released a comparison of physical features found on Ceres with similar ones present on Earth. Ceres' apparent magnitude ranges from 6.7 to 9.3, and hence at its brightest is still too dim to be seen with the naked eye.On September 27, 2007, NASA launched the Dawn space probe to explore Vesta (2011–2012) and Ceres in (2015). As the most important port in the Belt, the station has a population of approximately six million permanent residents with an extra one million transiting through at any given time. Since the PSF is defined in angular space at the instrument, the CERES FOV is a constant in angular space, but grows in surface area from a minimum at nadir to a larger area at shallow viewing angles. “Ceres.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Ceres.
Learn more. Ceres is a dwarf planet, the only one located in the inner reaches of the solar system; the rest lie at the outer edges, in the Kuiper Belt.

M. Neveu and S. J. Desch (2016) 'Geochemistry, thermal evolution, and cryovolanism on Ceres with a muddy ice mantle'. It was the first dwarf planet discovered. 2: a dwarf planet that orbits within the asteroid belt with a mean distance from the sun of 2.7 astronomical units (260 million miles) and a diameter of 590 miles (950 kilometers)

Ceres, formal designation 1 Ceres, is the smallest identified dwarf planet in the Solar System and the only one in the asteroid belt. They are named after the first craters whose names the IAU approved in July 2015. Dwarf planet Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and the only dwarf planet located in the inner solar system.

Space Wiki is a FANDOM Lifestyle Community. In October 2015, NASA released a true-color portrait of Ceres made by Dawn. Take your favorite fandoms with you and never miss a beat. ", "Water Ice on Ceres Boosts Hopes for Buried Ocean [Video]", "New Clues to Ceres' Bright Spots and Origins", "Recent Hydrothermal Activity May Explain Ceres' Brightest Area", "Mistaken Identity: Ceres Mysterious Bright Spots Aren't Epsom Salt After All", "Mystery Solved: Bright Areas on Ceres Come From Salty Water Below", "Mystery solved: Bright areas on Ceres come from salty water below", "Dawn discovers evidence for organic material on Ceres (Update)", Team finds evidence for carbon-rich surface on Ceres, "PIA22660: Ceres' Internal Structure (Artist's Concept)", "Ceres takes life an ice volcano at a time", Ceres: The Smallest and Closest Dwarf Planet, "Water in the Small Bodies of the Solar System", "Transient Water Vapor at Europa's South Pole", "The Potential for Volcanism on Ceres due to Crustal Thickening and Pressurization of a Subsurface Ocean", "Cratering on Ceres: Implications for its crust and evolution", "Ceres' geological activity, ice revealed in new research", "Confirmed: Ceres Has a Transient Atmosphere", "The Primordial Excitation and Clearing of the Asteroid Belt", "The Main Belt Comets and ice in the Solar System", "NASA's Dawn Mission Spies Ice Volcanoes on Ceres", "Observations reveal curiosities on the surface of asteroid Ceres", "China's Deep-space Exploration to 2030 by Zou Yongliao Li Wei Ouyang Ziyuan Key Laboratory of Lunar and Deep Space Exploration, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing", https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2020/pdf/1291.pdf, https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2020/pdf/lpsc2020_program.htm#sess333, "NASA's Dawn Captures First Image of Nearing Asteroid", "Year of the 'Dwarves': Ceres and Pluto Get Their Due", "Dawn Journal: Explaining Orbit Insertion", "Dawn Journal: From HAMO to LAMO and Beyond", "The Bright Spots of Ceres Spin Into View", "Ceres' Mystery Bright Dots May Have Volcanic Origin", "LPSC 2015: First results from Dawn at Ceres: provisional place names and possible plumes", "Bright Spots on Ceres Likely Ice, Not Cryovolcanoes", "NASA just found an ice volcano on Ceres that's half the size of Everest", "Dawn data from Ceres publicly released: Finally, color global portraits!
It was the first member of the asteroid belt to be discovered when Giuseppe Piazzi spotted it in 1801. Ceres, formal designation 1 Ceres, is the smallest identified dwarf planet in the Solar System and the only one in the asteroid belt. Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! Solar System → Local Interstellar Cloud → Local Bubble → Gould Belt → Orion Arm → Milky Way → Milky Way subgroup → Local Group → Local Sheet → Virgo Supercluster → Laniakea Supercluster → Observable universe → UniverseEach arrow (→) may be read as "within" or "part of". Accessed 1 Oct. 2020. ", "Planet debate: Proposed new definitions", "Solar system to welcome three new planets", "The IAU draft definition of "Planet" and "Plutons, "The IAU Draft Definition of Planets And Plutons", How to Spot Giant Asteroid Vesta in Night Sky This Week | Asteroid Vesta Skywatching Tips | Amateur Astronomy, Asteroids & Comets | Space.com, "Science: One Mission, Two Remarkable Destinations", https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/dwarf-planets/ceres/in-depth/, https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/infographic.view.php?id=11262, "Spectroscopic Properties of Asteroid Families", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, "Sizes, shapes, and derived properties of the saturnian satellites after the Cassini nominal mission", "Modelling the internal structure of Ceres: Coupling of accretion with compaction by creep and implications for the water-rock differentiation", "Sulfur, Sulfur Dioxide, Graphitized Carbon Observed on Ceres", "Near-Infrared Mapping and Physical Properties of the Dwarf-Planet Ceres", "Keck Adaptive Optics Images the Dwarf Planet Ceres", "Largest Asteroid May Be 'Mini Planet' with Water Ice", "The missing large impact craters on Ceres", "News – Ceres Spots Continue to Mystify in Latest Dawn Images", "NASA Discovers "Lonely Mountain" on Ceres Likely a Salty-Mud Cryovolcano", "Ceres: The tiny world where volcanoes erupt ice", "Mystery haze appears above Ceres's bright spots", "Dawn at Ceres: A haze in Occator crater?