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In 2017, Dawn confirmed that Ceres has a transient atmosphere of water vapour. [106] Hints of an atmosphere had appeared in early 2014, when the Herschel Space Observatory detected localised mid-latitude sources of water vapour on Ceres, no more than 60 km (40 mi) in diameter, which each give off approximately 10 26 molecules (3 kg) of water ...
Ceres is a dark object, having a geometric albedo of 0.094, [11] meaning that on average its surface reflects only 9% of the sunlight striking it. The composition of the material contributing to the low albedo remains uncertain, but graphitized carbon compounds or the mineral magnetite have been suggested.
A 2023 study of (307261) 2002 MS 4 shows that it probably has an extremely large crater, whose depth takes up 5.7% of its diameter: this is proportionally larger than the Rheasilvia crater on Vesta, which is the reason Vesta is not usually considered a dwarf planet today.
Scientists have detected ice on the planet's surface, which could mean Ceres is hiding an ocean below its frozen crust. Dwarf planet Ceres may have a huge ocean that could support life Skip to ...
The average thickness of the planet's crust is about 50 km, and it is no thicker than 125 kilometres (78 mi), [33] which is much thicker than Earth's crust which varies between 5 kilometres (3 mi) and 70 kilometres (43 mi). As a result, Mars' crust does not easily deform, as was shown by the recent radar map of the south polar ice cap which ...
These bright features have an albedo of about 40%, four times brighter than the average of Ceres's surface. [ 5 ] On 9 December 2015, scientists reported that the bright spots on Ceres may be related to a type of salt , particularly a form of brine containing hydrated magnesium sulfate (MgSO 4 ·6H 2 O); the spots were also found to be ...
Craters. Ceres is saturated with impact craters.Many have a central pit or bright spot. In the first batch of 17 names approved by the IAU, craters north of 20° north latitude had names beginning with A–G (with Asari being the furthest north), those between 20° north and south latitude beginning with H–R, and those further south beginning with S–Z (with Zadeni being the furthest south).
Eris (minor-planet designation: 136199 Eris) is the most massive and second-largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System. [ 22 ] It is a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) in the scattered disk and has a high- eccentricity orbit. Eris was discovered in January 2005 by a Palomar Observatory –based team led by Mike Brown and verified later that year.