Ceres

The dwarf planet closest to us

You need binoculars

Ceres, round and gray, covered in craters, with the pale salt spots at the bottom of a hollow.

The numbers

Diameter: 590mi(950 km)560 to 620 mi (900 to 1,000 km)
Where it is: In the asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter
Its share of the belt: 32%Of the whole main belt
When it was discovered: January 1, 1801, by Giuseppe Piazzi
A first: The first dwarf planet visited by a probe

To get an idea

It is the only dwarf planet that does not live in the regions beyond Neptune: it is between Mars and Jupiter.

Like Pluto, it was considered a planet and then no longer: but it happened fifty years earlier.

Fun facts

These are not in the book: there was no room on paper.

Its original name was Ceres Ferdinandea, in honor of a king as well as the goddess.
In the Kuiper Belt there are objects much bigger than Ceres, like Quaoar, Orcus and Sedna.
At the bottom of some of its craters there are very bright white spots, made of salts.
Under its crust there is thought to be a large amount of water ice.
With binoculars and a map it shows up as a little star that changes place from night to night.

Test yourself

The first question is the one printed under the QR code, with the answer the book did not give. The other four only exist here.

Question 1 of 5★ is the one from your book

Where is Ceres?

Question 2 of 5

What was Ceres for half a century?

Question 3 of 5

How much does Ceres weigh compared with the belt?

Question 4 of 5

What are the white spots in its craters?

Question 5 of 5

What first does Ceres hold?

Riddles

I was born as a new star on the first day of a century, and for fifty years you called me a planet. Then you discovered I had millions of neighbors and you demoted me. Much later you promoted me again. What am I?

I live in the middle of a sea of rocks and on my own I weigh almost a third of that whole sea. And yet there is so much empty space around me that nobody risks crashing into me. What am I?

I am round and gray, covered in pits, and at the bottom of some of them I shine with a white that surprised everyone. I was the first of my kind to get a visit. What am I?

Try it yourself

Activity 1

Look at the same patch of sky two or three evenings in a row and mark the positions on a sheet of paper: it is exactly the method used to discover it.

Activity 2

Draw a circle the size of a coin for the Moon and a smaller one next to it: that is Ceres, the biggest in the belt.

The words

asteroid: A rocky body that goes around the Sun, smaller than a planet.

Sources: Wikidata (Q596), Wikipedia (Cerere (astronomia)).