Ceres the Dwarf Planet

asteroid belt · dwarf planet · space discovery

Discovery in 1801. An Italian astronomer named Giuseppe Piazzi spotted Ceres on January 1st, 1801, and everyone thought it was a brand new planet. It turned out to be something much more special: the very first asteroid we ever found.

Home in the belt. Ceres floats in the asteroid belt, a donut-shaped region of rocky objects between Mars and Jupiter. It's so big and lonely that nothing else like it orbits nearby, making it the largest dwarf planet without any moons.

Reclassified over time. Scientists first called Ceres a planet, then changed their minds and called it an asteroid, and finally in 2006 gave it the special title of dwarf planet. Today it's the only dwarf planet in the entire asteroid belt and the only one whose orbit stays inside Neptune's orbit.

Icy and mysterious. Ceres is made partly of ice and rock, making it quite different from the dry asteroids around it. Scientists are still learning its secrets by studying it with space telescopes and probes.