Ceres, the Dwarf Planet

asteroid belt · dwarf planet · space discovery

Found in 1801. An Italian astronomer named Giuseppe Piazzi discovered Ceres on January 1, 1801, using a telescope in Sicily. At first, scientists thought it was a regular planet, but later realized it was something different.

Between two planets. Ceres orbits in the asteroid belt, which is the region of space between Mars and Jupiter filled with rocky objects. It's the largest thing in that whole belt.

The only dwarf planet here. Ceres is the only dwarf planet that orbits inside the asteroid belt, and it's also the only one without a moon. No other dwarf planets live in that rocky neighborhood.

Special classification. Ceres is the only recognized dwarf planet whose orbit stays inside Neptune's orbit. This makes it extra unique in our entire solar system.

Bigger than expected. Even though Ceres is called a dwarf planet, it's still huge, about 600 miles across. It's actually bigger than most of the other objects floating around in space near it.