today, there could be signs it harbored
life in the past.
Moons
Ceres does not have any moons.
Rings
Ceres does not have any rings.
Magnetosphere
Scientists don’t think Ceres has a
magnetosphere.
Ceres is a good example of how
challenging it can be to categorize
bodies in our solar system. When
Giuseppe Piazzi first spotted it in 1801,
he assumed Ceres was the “missing”
planet between Mars and Jupiter.
Within a few years, Pallas, Juno and
Vesta were also discovered in the region,
and they too were called planets.
Starting in the 1840s, astronomers
discussed reclassifying the increasing
number of bodies in this area, since they
didn’t quite fit the definition of a planet.
By 1860 a total of 62 bodies had been
discovered in the space between Mars
and Jupiter. And by 1863 astronomers
accepted the classification of these
objects as asteroids and called the area
the asteroid belt. That’s the way it stayed
for over 140 years.Then in 2006, astronomers designated
Ceres a dwarf planet, since it matched
the criteria used to classify Pluto and
similar-sized objects in the outer solar
system.Ceres holds the honor of being the
first dwarf planet to be orbited by a
spacecraft. Dawn reached it in 2015
to study its surface, composition and
history.Significant dates1801: Giuseppe Piazzi discovers Ceres
while searching for a star and calls it a
planet.
1802: John Herschel coins the term
«asteroid.»
1850: Alexander von Humboldt first
uses the term “asteroid belt.”
1863: Wide acceptance that Ceres be
classified as an asteroid.
2006: Ceres is classified as a dwarf
planet.
2007: The Dawn spacecraft launches.
2015: Dawn arrives at Ceres, marking
the first time a spacecraft has orbited a
dwarf planet.Did You Know?
Ceres was found by an astronomer
searching for a star. He thought he
found a comet, but with the help of
other astronomers decided it was a
planet. As more objects were found
between Mars and Jupiter, scientists
decided Ceres should be called an
asteroid—the largest in the region we
now call the main asteroid belt. Then,
in 2006, Ceres was reclassified as a
dwarf planet—the closest one to Earth.Pop Culture
The largest body in the asteroid
belt, Ceres has amassed a number of
references in science fiction stories of
the 20th and 21st centuries. In the TV
series The Expanse, Ceres is inhabited by
humans, and in the PC Game Descent,
one of the secret levels takes place on
Ceres.In the video game Destiny, Ceres was
colonized by an alien race called the
Fallen at the end of humanity’s Golden
Age. Ceres was later destroyed by a
civilization of post-humans who inhabit
the Asteroid Belt.This image of Ceres is part of a sequence taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft April 24 to 26, 2015, from a distance of 8,400 miles (13,
kilometers).
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
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