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Solar System/Ceres

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Photo of Ceres.

Ceres (pronounced as "series") is the only dwarf planet in the asteroid belt. It is the smallest recognized dwarf planet and contains 32% of the total mass of the asteroid belt. It was discovered in January 1, 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi. Ceres was originally called a planet, later it was classified as an asteroid and then it was finally classified as a dwarf planet in 2006 by the International Astronomical Union(IAU).

Orbit

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Ceres is located in the main asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter, at an average distance of 2.77 AU from the Sun. Its orbital eccentricity is 0.08, and it takes 4.60 Earth-years to orbit the Sun. Its orbit is tilted 10.58° relative to Earth's orbit.

Rotation

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Ceres rotates about its axis once every 9 hours 4 minutes.