Ceres (dwarf planet)
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Ceres is a dwarf planet in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It was the first object identified in the asteroid belt, discovered on 1 January 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi at Pa
Ceres as imaged by Dawn, May 2015. The two bright spots are the crater Haulani (right), and the floor of the crater Oxo (left).
Ceres (bottom left), the Moon and Earth, shown to scale
Relative mean diameters of the four largest minor planets in the asteroid belt (dwarf planet Ceres at left)
Ceres, polar regions (November 2015): North (left); south (right). The south pole is in shadow. "Ysolo Mons" has since been renamed "Yamor Mons."
Asteroid
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An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter. Asteroids are
A composite image, to the same scale, of the asteroids imaged at high resolution prior to 2012. They are, from largest to smallest: 4 Vesta, 21 Lutetia, 253 Mathilde, 243 Ida and its moon Dactyl, 433 Eros, 951 Gaspra, 2867 Šteins, 25143 Itokawa.
Vesta (left), with Ceres (center) and the Moon (right) shown to scale
Giuseppe Velasquez, Giuseppe Piazzi and Ceres, oil on canvas, c. 1803
2013 EC, shown here in radar images, has a provisional designation