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Ceres (dwarf planet) facts for kids

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Ceres Ceres symbol.svg
PIA18920-Ceres-DwarfPlanet-20150219.jpg
Ceres
Discovery
Discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi
Discovery date January 1, 1801
Designations
MPC designation 1 Ceres
A899 OF; 1943 XB
dwarf planet
main belt
Orbital characteristics
Epoch November 26, 2005
(JD 2453700.5)
Aphelion 447,838,164 km
2.987 AU
Perihelion 381,419,582 km
2.544 AU
414,703,838 km
2.765 956 424 AU
Eccentricity 0.07976017
1679.819 days
4.599 years
17.882 km/s
108.509°
Inclination 10.586712°
80.40696°
73.15073°
Physical characteristics
Mean radius
 473 km
Flattening 0.067 ± 0.005
Mass 9.46 ± 0.04×1020 kg
Mean density
 2.08 g/cm3
Equatorial surface gravity
 0.27 m/s²
0.028 g
Equatorial escape velocity
 0.51 km/s
0.3781 d
9.074 h
0.113 (geometric)
Surface temp. min mean max
Kelvin ~167 K 239 K
G
6.7 to 9.32
3.34
Angular diameter
 0.84" to 0.33"

Ceres, also known as 1 Ceres, is the smallest dwarf planet in the Solar System and the only one in the main asteroid belt.

It was discovered on 1 January 1801, by Giuseppe Piazzi, and is named after the Roman goddess Ceres, as the goddess of growing plants, the harvest, and of motherly love. After about 200 years from its discovery, the International Astronomical Union decided to upgrade Ceres from an asteroid (or minor planet) to dwarf planetary status in 2006.

With a diameter of about 950 km, Ceres is by far the largest and most massive object in the asteroid belt, and has about a third of the belt's total mass. It was once thought to be smaller than Vesta, which is brighter. The asteroid is spherical, unlike the irregular shapes of smaller bodies with lower gravity. At its brightest it is still too dim to be seen with the naked eye.

On September 27, 2007, NASA launched the Dawn space probe to explore Ceres and Vesta. In 2015, Dawn became the first spacecraft to visit a dwarf planet, arriving at Ceres a few months before NASA's New Horizons spacecraft visited Pluto, another dwarf planet.

Ceres has an unusual crater, Occator which contains bright salts.

Images for kids

PIA22477 fig1-DwarfPlanet-Ceres-Dawn-CerealiaFacula-20180622b
Close up image of bright salts, imaged by the Dawn spacecraft, in the crater Occator on Ceres.

Related pages


Images for kids

  • Cerere Ferdinandea

    Piazzi's book Della scoperta del nuovo pianeta Cerere Ferdinandea, outlining the discovery of Ceres, dedicated the new planet to Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies.

  • The Four Largest Asteroids

    Relative sizes of the four largest asteroids. Ceres is furthest left.

  • PIA22090-Ceres-DwarfPlanet-NotableFeatures-20180117

    Notable geological features on Ceres

  • PIA20353 Ceres Neutron Counts Reflect Hydrogen Abundance

    Hydrogen concentration in the upper meter of the regolith. Blue denotes a higher concentration and indicates the presence of water ice.

  • Ceres Rotation

    HST images taken over a span of 2 hours and 20 minutes in 2004

  • PIA22083-Ceres-DwarfPlanet-GravityMapping-20171026

    Map of Cererian gravity fields: red is high; blue, low.

  • Ceres Polarmetric Map

    Polarimetric map of Ceres

  • Dawn Flight Configuration 2

    Artist's conception of Dawn, travelling from Vesta to Ceres

  • PIA21906-Ceres-DwarfPlanet-HighResolution-Dawn-20170920

    Ceres − high-resolution view (20 September 2017)

  • Ceres - RC3 - Dantu Crater (21749311993)
  • PIA21079 - Ceres in Color, edited
  • 20151022 ceres rc3 urvara machi f537
  • PIA20188-Ceres-DwarfPlanet-Dawn-4thMapOrbit-LAMO-image5-20151210e-color
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