Ceres
A dwarf planet among asteroids
Ceres is a dwarf planet between Mars and Jupiter. This region is the asteroid belt, where many rocky objects travel around the Sun. Ceres is the biggest of them. Its gravity is strong enough to pull it into a nearly round shape, so it looks more like a small planet than a bumpy stone.
Ceres has craters and puzzling bright patches. The Dawn spacecraft studied them and found salts. Signs of water and unusual mountains tell stories about its past. Scientists see Ceres as an important clue: small worlds can be complicated and interesting too. They are much more than boring rocks floating through space.
Play space games → Explore in the planetarium →In the planetarium you can spin this world and look at it from every side.
Artist’s impression · the surface is an illustration.
Sources and images
Celestial maps: Solar System Scope / INOVE · CC BY 4.0. Thumbnails were reduced and shaded. Artistic SVG maps were created for this project.