Ceres (dwarf planet)

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Ceres ⚳
Ceres optimized.jpg
Ceres as seen by Hubble Space Telescope (ACS).[1] The contrast has been enhanced to reveal surface details.
Discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi
Discovery date 1 January 1801
MPC designation 1 Ceres
Pronunciation /ˈsɪərz/ SEER-eez
Named after
A899 OF; 1943 XB
Minor planet category dwarf planet
main belt
Adjectives Cererian /sɨˈrɪəri.ən/
or Cererean /sɛrɨˈriːən/[3]
Orbital characteristics[5]
Epoch 2013-Nov-04
(JD 2456600.5)
Aphelion 445280000 km
(2.9765 AU)
Perihelion 382520000 km
(2.5570 AU)
413910000 km
(2.7668 AU)
Eccentricity 0.075797
4.60 yr
1680.99 d
466.7 d
1.278 yr
17.882 km/s
Inclination 10.593° to Ecliptic
9.20° to Invariable plane[4]
Satellites None
Proper orbital elements[6]
2.7670962 AU
78.193318 deg / yr
4.60397 yr
(1681.601 d)
Precession of perihelion
54.070272 arcsec / yr
Precession of the ascending node
−59.170034 arcsec / yr
Physical characteristics
Mean radius
476.2 ± ?? km[7]
Equatorial radius
487.3±1.8 km[8]
Polar radius
454.7±1.6 km[8]
2850000 km2

(9.43±0.07)×1020 kg,[9] 9.47±??[7]

0.0128 Moons
Mean density
2.077±0.036 g/cm3,[8] 2.09±??[7]
0.28 m/s2[7]
0.029 g
0.51 km/s[10]
0.3781 d
9.074170±0.000002 h[11]
≈ 3°[8]
North pole right ascension
19h 24m
North pole declination
Albedo 0.090±0.0033 (V-band geometric)[12]
Surface temp. min mean max
Kelvin ? ≈ 168 K[16] 235 K[17]
Spectral type
6.64[14] to 9.34[15]
0.854″ to 0.339″

Ceres (minor-planet designation 1 Ceres) /ˈsɪərz/ (SEER-eez)[18] is the largest object in the asteroid belt, which lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It is a ball of rock and ice 950 km (590 mi) in diameter, containing a third of the mass of the asteroid belt. It is the largest asteroid, and the only dwarf planet in the inner Solar System. It was the first asteroid to be discovered, on 1 January 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi in Palermo, though at first it was considered to be a planet. The unmanned Dawn spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at Ceres in early 2015.




Johann Elert Bode, in 1772, first suggested that an undiscovered planet could exist between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.[19] Kepler had already noticed the gap between Mars and Jupiter in 1596.[19] Bode based his idea on the Titius–Bode law—a now-discredited hypothesis Johann Daniel Titius first proposed in 1766—observing that there was a regular pattern in the semi-major axes of the orbits of known planets, marred only by the large gap between Mars and Jupiter.[19][20] The pattern predicted that the missing planet ought to have an orbit with a semi-major axis near 2.8 AU.[20] William Herschel's discovery of Uranus in 1781[19] near the predicted distance for the next body beyond Saturn increased faith in the law of Titius and Bode, and in 1800, a group headed by Franz Xaver von Zach, editor of the Monatliche Correspondenz, sent requests to twenty-four experienced astronomers, asking that they combine their efforts and begin a methodical search for the expected planet.[19][20] Although they did not discover Ceres, they later found several large asteroids.[20]

Piazzi's book "Della scoperta del nuovo pianeta Cerere Ferdinandea" outlining the discovery of Ceres, dedicated the new "planet" to Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies

One of the astronomers selected for the search was Giuseppe Piazzi at the Academy of Palermo, Sicily. Before receiving his invitation to join the group, Piazzi discovered Ceres on 1 January 1801.[21] He was searching for "the 87th [star] of the Catalogue of the Zodiacal stars of Mr la Caille", but found that "it was preceded by another".[19] Instead of a star, Piazzi had found a moving star-like object, which he first thought was a comet.[22] Piazzi observed Ceres a total of 24 times, the final time on 11 February 1801, when illness interrupted his observations. He announced his discovery on 24 January 1801 in letters to only two fellow astronomers, his compatriot Barnaba Oriani of Milan and Bode of Berlin.[23] He reported it as a comet but "since its movement is so slow and rather uniform, it has occurred to me several times that it might be something better than a comet".[19] In April, Piazzi sent his complete observations to Oriani, Bode, and Jérôme Lalande in Paris. The information was published in the September 1801 issue of the Monatliche Correspondenz.[22]

By this time, the apparent position of Ceres had changed (mostly due to the Earth's orbital motion), and was too close to the Sun's glare for other astronomers to confirm Piazzi's observations. Toward the end of the year, Ceres should have been visible again, but after such a long time it was difficult to predict its exact position. To recover Ceres, Carl Friedrich Gauss, then 24 years old, developed an efficient method of orbit determination.[22] In only a few weeks, he predicted the path of Ceres and sent his results to von Zach. On 31 December 1801, von Zach and Heinrich W. M. Olbers found Ceres near the predicted position and thus recovered it.[22]

The early observers were only able to calculate the size of Ceres to within about an order of magnitude. Herschel underestimated its size as 260 km in 1802, whereas in 1811 Johann Hieronymus Schröter overestimated it as 2,613 km.[24][25]


Piazzi originally suggested the name Cerere Ferdinandea for his discovery, after the goddess Ceres (Roman goddess of agriculture, Italian Cerere) and King Ferdinand III of Sicily.[19][22] "Ferdinandea", however, was not acceptable to other nations and was dropped. Ceres was called Hera for a short time in Germany.[26] In Greece, it is called Demeter (Δήμητρα), after the Greek equivalent of the Roman Cerēs;[a] in English, that name is used for the asteroid 1108 Demeter.

The regular adjectival forms of the name are Cererian and Cererean,[27] derived from the Latin genitive Cereris,[3] but Ceresian is occasionally seen for the goddess (as in the sickle-shaped Ceresian Lake), as is the shorter form Cerean.

The old astronomical symbol of Ceres is a sickle, (Sickle variant symbol of Ceres),[28] similar to Venus's symbol but with a break in the circle, with a variant Cee variant symbol of Ceres reversed under the influence of the initial letter 'C' of 'Cerium'. This was later replaced with the generic asteroid symbol of a numbered disk, .[22][29]

The chemical element cerium, discovered in 1803, was named after Ceres.[30][b] In the same year another element was also initially named after Ceres, but when cerium was named its discoverer changed the name to palladium, after the second asteroid, 2 Pallas.[32]



The categorization of Ceres has changed more than once and has been the subject of some disagreement. Johann Elert Bode believed Ceres to be the "missing planet" he had proposed to exist between Mars and Jupiter, at a distance of 419 million km (2.8 AU) from the Sun.[19] Ceres was assigned a planetary symbol, and remained listed as a planet in astronomy books and tables (along with 2 Pallas, 3 Juno and 4 Vesta) for half a century.[19][22][33]

As other objects were discovered in the neighborhood of Ceres, it was realized that Ceres represented the first of a new class of objects.[19] In 1802, with the discovery of 2 Pallas, William Herschel coined the term asteroid ("star-like") for these bodies,[33] writing that "they resemble small stars so much as hardly to be distinguished from them, even by very good telescopes".[34] As the first such body to be discovered, Ceres was given the designation 1 Ceres under the modern system of asteroid numbering.[33]

First asteroid image from Mars: Ceres and Vesta viewed by Curiosity (20 April 2014).

The 2006 debate surrounding Pluto and what constitutes a 'planet' led to Ceres being considered for reclassification as a planet.[35][36] A proposal before the International Astronomical Union for the definition of a planet would have defined a planet as "a celestial body that (a) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid-body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (b) is in orbit around a star, and is neither a star nor a satellite of a planet".[37] Had this resolution been adopted, it would have made Ceres the fifth planet in order from the Sun.[38] This never happened, however, and on 24 August 2006 a modified definition was adopted, carrying the additional requirement that a planet must have "cleared the neighborhood around its orbit". By this definition, Ceres is not a planet because it does not dominate its orbit, sharing it as it does with the thousands of other asteroids in the asteroid belt and constituting only about a third of the mass of the belt. Bodies which met the first proposed definition but not the second, such as Ceres, were instead classified as dwarf planets (planetoids).

It is sometimes assumed that Ceres has been reclassified as a dwarf planet, and that it is therefore no longer considered an asteroid. For example, a news update at Space.com spoke of "Pallas, the largest asteroid, and Ceres, the dwarf planet formerly classified as an asteroid",[39] whereas an IAU question-and-answer posting states, "Ceres is (or now we can say it was) the largest asteroid", though it then speaks of "other asteroids" crossing Ceres's path and otherwise implies that Ceres is still considered an asteroid.[40] The Minor Planet Center notes that such bodies may have dual designations.[41] The 2006 IAU decision that classified Ceres as a dwarf planet never addressed whether it is or is not an asteroid, as indeed the IAU has never defined the word 'asteroid' at all, preferring the term 'minor planet' until 2006, and 'small Solar System body' and 'dwarf planet' after 2006. Lang (2011) comments, "The [IAU has] added a new designation to Ceres, classifying it as a dwarf planet. ... By [its] definition, Eris, Haumea, Makemake and Pluto, as well as the largest asteroid, 1 Ceres, are all dwarf planets", and describes it elsewhere as "the dwarf planet–asteroid 1 Ceres".[42] NASA continues to refer to Ceres as an asteroid, saying in a 2011 press announcement that "Dawn will orbit two of the largest asteroids in the Main Belt",[43] as do various academic textbooks.[44][45]

Physical characteristics[edit]

Hubble Space Telescope images of Ceres, taken in 2003–04 with a resolution of about 30 km. The nature of the bright spot is uncertain.[46]

Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt.[13] The mass of Ceres has been determined by analysis of the influence it exerts on smaller asteroids. Results differ slightly between researchers.[47] The average of the three most precise values as of 2008 is 9.4×1020 kg.[9][47] With this mass Ceres comprises about a third of the estimated total 3.0 ± 0.2×1021 kg mass of the asteroid belt,[48] which is in turn about 4% of the mass of the Moon. The mass of Ceres is sufficient to give it a nearly spherical shape in hydrostatic equilibrium.[8] In contrast, other large asteroids such as 2 Pallas,[49] 3 Juno,[50] and in particular 10 Hygiea[51] are known to be somewhat irregular in shape. Among Solar System bodies, Ceres is intermediate in size between the smaller Orcus and 2002 MS4 and the larger Tethys. The surface area is approximately equal to the land area of India or Argentina.[52]

Internal structure[edit]

Ceres's oblateness is inconsistent with an undifferentiated body, which indicates that it consists of a rocky core overlain with an icy mantle.[8] This 100-km-thick mantle (23%–28% of Ceres by mass; 50% by volume)[53] contains 200 million cubic kilometers of water, which is more than the amount of fresh water on Earth.[54] This result is supported by the observations made by the Keck telescope in 2002 and by evolutionary modeling.[9][55] Also, some characteristics of its surface and history (such as its distance from the Sun, which weakened solar radiation enough to allow some fairly low-freezing-point components to be incorporated during its formation), point to the presence of volatile materials in the interior of Ceres.[9]

Alternatively, the shape and dimensions of Ceres may be explained by an interior that is porous and either partially differentiated or completely undifferentiated. The presence of a layer of rock on top of ice would be gravitationally unstable. If any of the rock deposits sank into a layer of differentiated ice, salt deposits would be formed. Such deposits have not been detected. Thus it is possible that Ceres does not contain a large ice shell, but was instead formed from low-density asteroids with an aqueous component. The decay of radioactive isotopes may not have been sufficient to cause differentiation.[56]


The surface composition of Ceres is broadly similar to that of C-type asteroids.[13] Some differences do exist. The ubiquitous features of the Cererian IR spectra are those of hydrated materials, which indicate the presence of significant amounts of water in the interior. Other possible surface constituents include iron-rich clay minerals (cronstedtite) and carbonate minerals (dolomite and siderite), which are common minerals in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites.[13] The spectral features of carbonates and clay minerals are usually absent in the spectra of other C-type asteroids.[13] Sometimes Ceres is classified as a G-type asteroid.[57]

The Cererian surface is relatively warm. The maximum temperature with the Sun overhead was estimated from measurements to be 235 K (about −38 °C, −36 °F) on 5 May 1991.[17]

Diagram showing a possible internal structure of Ceres

Only a few Cererian surface features have been unambiguously detected. High-resolution ultraviolet Hubble Space Telescope images taken in 1995 showed a dark spot on its surface, which was nicknamed "Piazzi" in honor of the discoverer of Ceres.[57] This was thought to be a crater. Later near-infrared images with a higher resolution taken over a whole rotation with the Keck telescope using adaptive optics showed several bright and dark features moving with Ceres's rotation.[9][58] Two dark features had circular shapes and are presumably craters; one of them was observed to have a bright central region, whereas another was identified as the "Piazzi" feature.[9][58] More recent visible-light Hubble Space Telescope images of a full rotation taken in 2003 and 2004 showed 11 recognizable surface features, the natures of which are currently unknown.[12][59] One of these features corresponds to the "Piazzi" feature observed earlier.[12]

These last observations also determined that the north pole of Ceres points in the direction of right ascension 19 h 24 min (291°), declination +59°, in the constellation Draco. This means that Ceres's axial tilt is very small—about 3°.[8][12]


There are indications that Ceres may have a tenuous atmosphere and water frost on the surface.[60] Surface water ice is unstable at distances less than 5 AU from the Sun,[61] so it is expected to sublime if it is exposed directly to solar radiation. Water ice can migrate from the deep layers of Ceres to the surface, but escapes in a very short time. As a result, it is difficult to detect water vaporization. Water escaping from polar regions of Ceres was possibly observed in the early 1990s but this has not been unambiguously demonstrated. It may be possible to detect escaping water from the surroundings of a fresh impact crater or from cracks in the subsurface layers of Ceres.[9] Ultraviolet observations by the IUE spacecraft detected statistically significant amounts of hydroxide ions near the Cererean north pole, which is a product of water-vapor dissociation by ultraviolet solar radiation.[60]

In early 2014, using data from the Herschel Space Observatory, it was discovered that there are several localized (not more than 60 km in diameter) mid-latitude sources of water vapor on Ceres, which each give off about 1026 molecules (or 3  kg) of water per second.[62][63][c] Two potential source regions, designated Piazzi (123°E, 21°N) and Region A (231°E, 23°N), have been visualized in the near infrared as dark areas (Region A also has a bright center) by the W. M. Keck Observatory. Possible mechanisms for the vapor release are sublimation from about 0.6 km2 of exposed surface ice, or cryovolcanic eruptions resulting from radiogenic internal heat.[62] Surface sublimation would be expected to decline as Ceres recedes from the Sun in its eccentric orbit, while internally powered emissions should not be affected by orbital position. The limited data available are more consistent with cometary-style sublimation.[62] The spacecraft Dawn will arrive at Ceres in 2015 as it approaches aphelion, which may constrain its ability to observe this phenomenon.[62]

Potential for extraterrestrial life[edit]

Although not as actively discussed as a potential home for extraterrestrial life as Mars or Europa, the presence of water ice has led to speculation that life may exist there,[66][67][68] and that hypothesized ejecta could have come from Ceres to Earth.[69]


Orbit of Ceres

Ceres follows an orbit between Mars and Jupiter, within the asteroid belt, with a period of 4.6 Earth years.[5] The orbit is moderately inclined (i = 10.6° compared to 7° for Mercury and 17° for Pluto) and moderately eccentric (e = 0.08 compared to 0.09 for Mars).[5]


(in AU)
e i Period
(in days)
Proper[6] 2.7671 0.116198 9.647435 1681.60
(Epoch 2010-Jul-23)
2.7653 0.079138 10.586821 1679.66
Difference 0.0018 0.03706 0.939386 1.94

In the past, Ceres had been considered a member of an asteroid family.[70] These groupings of asteroids share similar proper orbital elements, which may indicate a common origin through an asteroid collision some time in the past. Ceres was found to have spectral properties different from other members of the family, and so this grouping is now called the Gefion family, named after the next-lowest-numbered family member, 1272 Gefion.[70] Ceres appears to be merely an interloper in its own family, coincidentally having similar orbital elements but not a common origin.[71]

The rotational period of Ceres (the Cererian day) is 9 hours and 4 minutes.[72]

Ceres is in a near-1:1 mean-motion orbital resonance with Pallas (their orbital periods differ by 0.3%).[73] However, a true resonance between the two would be unlikely; due to their small masses relative to their large separations, such relationships among asteroids are very rare.[74]

Transits of planets from Ceres[edit]

Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars can all appear to cross the Sun, or transit it, from a vantage point at Ceres. The most common transits are those of Mercury, which usually happen every few years, most recently in 2006 and 2010. The corresponding dates are 1953 and 2051 for Venus, 1814 and 2081 for Earth, and 767 and 2684 for Mars.[75]

Origin and evolution[edit]

Ceres is probably a surviving protoplanet (planetary embryo), which formed 4.57 billion years ago in the asteroid belt.[55] Although the majority of inner Solar System protoplanets (including all lunar- to Mars-sized bodies) either merged with other protoplanets to form terrestrial planets or were ejected from the Solar System by Jupiter,[76] Ceres is believed to have survived relatively intact.[55] An alternative theory proposes that Ceres formed in the Kuiper belt and later migrated to the asteroid belt.[77] Another possible protoplanet, Vesta, is less than half the size of Ceres; it suffered a major impact after solidifying, losing ~1% of its mass.[78]

The geological evolution of Ceres was dependent on the heat sources available during and after its formation: friction from planetesimal accretion, and decay of various radionuclides (possibly including short-lived elements like 26Al). These are thought to have been sufficient to allow Ceres to differentiate into a rocky core and icy mantle soon after its formation.[12][55] This process may have caused resurfacing by water volcanism and tectonics, erasing older geological features.[55] Due to its small size, Ceres would have cooled early in its existence, causing all geological resurfacing processes to cease.[55][79] Any ice on the surface would have gradually sublimated, leaving behind various hydrated minerals like clay minerals and carbonates.[13]

Today, Ceres appears to be a geologically inactive body, with a surface sculpted only by impacts.[12] The presence of significant amounts of water ice in its composition[8] raises the possibility that Ceres has or had a layer of liquid water in its interior.[55][79] This hypothetical layer is often called an ocean.[13] If such a layer of liquid water exists, it is believed to be located between the rocky core and ice mantle like that of the theorized ocean on Europa.[55] The existence of an ocean is more likely if solutes (i.e. salts), ammonia, sulfuric acid or other antifreeze compounds are dissolved in the water.[55]


Some notable observational milestones for Ceres include:


On 22 December 2012, 1 Ceres occulted the star TYC 1865-00446-1 over parts of Japan, Russia, and China.[84] Ceres's brightness was magnitude 6.9 and the star, 12.2.[84]


Artistic montage of Dawn firing its ion rocket engine, with conjectural Vesta, Ceres (right), and asteroid field.

No space probe has visited Ceres. Radio signals from spacecraft in orbit around and on the surface of Mars have been used to estimate the mass of Ceres from its perturbations on the motion of Mars.[48]

The spacecraft Dawn, launched by NASA in 2007, orbited asteroid 4 Vesta from 15 July 2011 until 5 September 2012[85] and is continuing on to Ceres. It is scheduled to enter Ceres orbit in late March or early April 2015, several months prior to the arrival of New Horizons at Pluto. Collectively these two space missions will explore two of the five Dwarf planets currently recognized by the IAU in the same year. [86] Dawn will thus be the first mission to study a dwarf planet at close range.

Dawn's mission profile calls for it to enter orbit around Ceres at an altitude of 5,900 km. The spacecraft will reduce its orbital distance to 1,300 km after five months of study, and then down to 700 km after another five months.[87] The spacecraft instrumentation includes a framing camera, a visual and infrared spectrometer, and a gamma-ray and neutron detector. These instruments will examine Ceres's shape and elemental composition.[88]

On 20 April 2014, Mars rover Curiosity snapped the first ever photos of asteroids from the Martian surface, including Ceres and Vesta.[89]

See also[edit]


  2. ^ In 1807 Klaproth tried to change the name to the more etymologically justified "cererium", but it did not take.[31]
  3. ^ This emission rate is modest compared to those calculated for the tidally driven plumes of Enceladus (a smaller body) and Europa (a larger body), 200 kg/s[64] and 7000 kg/s,[65] respectively.


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  10. ^ Calculated based on the known parameters
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  28. ^ Unicode value U+26B3
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