On this date, January 1st, over 200 years ago in 1801, Asteroid Ceres was discovered. The first asteroid was discovered by Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi, though it was classified as a planet at the time. He named his discovery Ceres after the Roman goddess of the harvest and motherly love. The asteroid was discovered to conform with the Titus-Bode law that suggested a planet should appear between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It is the largest body containing about one third of the mass of the asteroid belt that was discovered soon after. Ceres is the largest asteroid and only dwarf planet in the inner solar system. It has a rock-ice body and measures 950km in diameter, the smallest identified dwarf planet.Image: Ceres (bottom left), the Moon and Earth shown to scale.
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