Dwarf planets · Dwarf planet

Ceres

Asteroid belt · Light crosses it in 0.0031 seconds

Across

939 km

Vs Earth

7.37% of Earth

Mass

0.02% of Earth

Open Ceres in Cosmic Scale

About

Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt and the only dwarf planet inside Neptune's orbit. When it was discovered in 1801 it was called a planet; as more asteroids turned up it was reclassified, and in 2006 it was promoted to dwarf planet.

The largest object in the asteroid belt, with bright salt deposits.

At a glance

Orbit	4.6 years, in the asteroid belt
Share of the belt	About a third of its mass
Water	Ice and brine beneath the crust
Visited	Dawn, 2015–2018

Did you know

1. The bright patches in Occator crater are salt left behind by briny water that reached the surface.
2. Dawn found organic molecules, and evidence of a muddy layer of brine still present today.
3. It holds more fresh water than Earth, mostly as ice.

Real photo

• Close-ups of Ceres's southern hemisphere from Dawn's lowest orbit — NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA · source