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Ceres (minor-planet designation: 1 Ceres) is a dwarf planet in the middle main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It was the first known asteroid , discovered on 1 January 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi at Palermo Astronomical Observatory in Sicily , and announced as a new planet .
The third-largest asteroid with an accurately measured mass, because it has moons, is 87 Sylvia at (14.76 ± 0.06) × 10 18 kg. Other large asteroids with masses measured from their moons are 107 Camilla and 130 Elektra. [3] [13] [1] For a more complete list, see List of Solar System objects by size.
This asteroid belt is also called the main asteroid belt or main belt to distinguish it from other asteroid populations in the Solar System. [1] The asteroid belt is the smallest and innermost known circumstellar disc in the Solar System. Classes of small Solar System bodies in other regions are the near-Earth objects, the centaurs, the Kuiper ...
The asteroid and comet belts orbit the Sun from the inner rocky planets into outer parts of the Solar System, interstellar space. [ 16 ] [ 17 ] [ 18 ] An astronomical unit , or AU, is the distance from Earth to the Sun, which is approximately 150 billion meters (93 million miles). [ 19 ]
An asteroid in our solar system will temporarily block the light of Betelgeuse, one of the brightest stars in the night sky, Monday evening and early Tuesday morning.
A small asteroid will be pulled into orbit around the Earth as a “mini-moon” later this month before the space rock departs into other parts of the solar system.. The 10m-wide asteroid, dubbed ...
Ceres has spectral similarities to C-type asteroids, [3] which are rich in volatiles and carbonaceous compounds. Ceres is also sometimes classified as a G-type asteroid, [11] [12] which is a subtype of the Tholen C-class and characterized by abundant phyllosilicates, such as clay minerals. Ceres is not associated with any asteroid family or ...
The mountain was discovered on images taken by the Dawn spacecraft in orbit around Ceres in 2015. [6] It is estimated to have an average height of about 4 km (2.5 mi; 13,000 ft) and a maximum height of about 5 km (3.1 mi; 16,000 ft) on its steepest side; it is about 20 km (12 mi; 66,000 ft) wide at the base.