Dwarf Planet : Ceres

1 Ceres is by far the largest of the asteroids, comprising more than a third of the total mass of the main asteroid belt. Ceres is also the smallest of the dwarf planets.

orbit: 446,000,000 km from the Sun (average)
size: 475 km


Ceres is the Roman goddess of the harvest and motherly love.

Ceres was discovered on 1 Jan 1801 by Guiseppe Piazzi.

Ceres has not yet been seen up close but NASA's Dawn spacecraft will visit it in 2015 (after visiting Vesta in 2011).