Knowra Ceres Ceres Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt and a dwarf planet. Its icy, rocky interior and evidence of brines make it a key world for studying water beyond Earth.
Dwarf planet : A celestial body that orbits the Sun, is nearly round, and has not cleared its orbital neighborhood. Ceres meets this classification while remaining part of the asteroid belt.
Ceres geology : The study of Ceres’s surface materials, landforms, and internal processes. Its craters, mountains, and bright deposits record the dwarf planet’s geological evolution.
Giuseppe Piazzi : The Italian astronomer who discovered Ceres in 1801. Piazzi’s observation began the study of the first known asteroid-belt object.
Pluto : A dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, beyond Neptune, and the largest known object in that region. Pluto shares Ceres’s dwarf-planet classification but occupies a distant, icy outer region.
Asteroid belt : The region between Mars and Jupiter containing most of the Solar System’s asteroids. Ceres is the belt’s largest resident, but its size sets it apart from typical asteroids.
Occator crater : A large impact crater on Ceres containing prominent bright salt deposits. Its deposits provide the clearest evidence of brines reaching Ceres’s surface.
Asteroid discovery : The history and methods of identifying small bodies orbiting the Sun. Ceres was the first object discovered in the region later called the asteroid belt.
Vesta : A large asteroid in the asteroid belt with a differentiated, mostly rocky interior. Vesta is Ceres’s belt neighbor, but it is smaller and lacks Ceres’s evidence for abundant ice.
Asteroid : A small rocky or metallic body orbiting the Sun, most commonly found in the asteroid belt. Ceres was long classified as an asteroid before its dwarf-planet status.
Cryovolcanism : Volcanic activity in which water, ammonia, or other volatile materials erupt instead of silicate rock. Ceres’s ice-rich interior and Ahuna Mons have prompted study of icy volcanism.
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