Professional Documents
Culture Documents
the main asteroid belt that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. With a
diameter of 940 km (580 mi), Ceres is both the largest of the asteroids and the
only dwarf planet inside Neptune's orbit.[c] It is the 25th-largest body in the
Solar System within the orbit of Neptune.[17]
Ceres is the only object in the asteroid belt rounded by its own gravity,[19]
although Vesta and perhaps other asteroids were so in the past. From Earth, the
apparent magnitude of Ceres ranges from 6.7 to 9.3, peaking once at opposition
every 15 to 16 months, which is its synodic period.[13] Thus even at its brightest,
it is too dim to be seen by the naked eye, except under extremely dark skies. Ceres
has been classified as a C-type asteroid[12] and, due to the presence of clay
minerals, as a G-type asteroid.[20]
The robotic NASA spacecraft Dawn entered orbit around Ceres on 6 March 2015.[23]
[24][25]