Between Mars and Jupiter. The dwarf planet got its name in honor of the Roman goddess of agriculture and abundance, Ceres. Consisting mainly of rock and ice formations, it is approximately 950 km in diameter.
Discovery of a dwarf planet
Ceres - an asteroid or still a planet? Accidentally discovered in 1801 by the Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi, an unknown celestial body was first identified as a comet, then there were suggestions that it was an asteroid. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union formed a new class of objects in the solar system, known as Ceres, began to be considered a planet, though a dwarf one, along with Vesta, Juno and others.
Physical characteristics and composition of the planet
Scientists believe that Ceres has a rocky core and an icy mantle 100 kilometers thick. Some of them also believe that it has a liquid water layer up to 200 million cubic kilometers. This assumption makes the dwarf planet an interesting target for those researchers looking for signs. NASA launched a study called Don, whose mission was to make a space trip right into the asteroid belt to collect data on the surface features and chemical composition of the dwarf.
Showed the presence of trace minerals and water, and in places, probably also an ice cover. According to astronomers, the planet Ceres (NASA photos give reason to think so) may have much more fresh water deposits than on Earth, and they occupy an area equal to the territory of India, Argentina or 4% of the lunar surface. The outer layer is rather porous, with the possible presence of iron-rich clay rocks and carbonates.
NASA research
There is no more doubt about the refutation of the fact that the planet Ceres is an asteroid, one of those that make up its orbit. NASA's robotic spacecraft Don entered planetary orbit on March 6, 2015. Pictures of the object were taken back in January 2015, when the ship was just approaching Ceres. The camera captured two bright spots in one of the craters. A 2015 NASA spokesperson said it could be traces of ice or salt. On May 11, 2015, higher resolution images appeared that showed more light spots.
Ice, fire and geological development
The surface of Ceres is relatively warm. The maximum temperature reaches -38 °C. Ice at this temperature is rather unstable. Thanks to the ultraviolet observations of the IUE spacecraft, a significant amount of hydroxide ions was detected at the planet's North Pole. They are the product of water evaporation due to ultraviolet solar radiation.
The geological development of the rocky and icy surface was directly dependent on the heat sources available during and after formation such as Ceres (a dwarf planet). These processes are also likely to be associated with certain volcanic and tectonic movements. Ice formations on the surface gradually rose, covering minerals in the form of clay and carbonates.
The planet Ceres in astrology and mythology
In astrology, Ceres (the planet) is a symbol of the bond between parent and child. There is no greater love on earth than the love of a mother for her child. In medical astrology, the defeat of Ceres indicates the presence of a reproductive problem and infertility. As a celestial body, the planet is responsible for efficiency, diligence and the ability to worthily carry out professional assignments, productive ideas, projects and creations.
In mythology, Ceres (the planet), the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Demeter, was the sister of Zeus (Jupiter). She is the mother of all the earth and is responsible for the harvest, cooking, love, abundance and comfort. She was the goddess of agriculture, and when her daughter Persephone (Proserpina) was kidnapped by Pluto, who wanted to force her to marry him, Ceres was so carried away by the search for her daughter that she abandoned her care of the Earth, which became completely cold. This is how the autumn and winter seasons were characterized. In spring and summer, Hermes returned Persephone to her mother, and everything around her blossomed.
Ceres is a dwarf planet on par with Pluto, which is an equal player along with the rest of the participants in the cosmic field of the solar system. This is the largest of all discovered by mankind.
But it continued to be considered a planet for several more decades, and according to the results of the clarification of the concept of "planet" by the International Astronomical Union on August 24, 2006, at the XXVI General Assembly of the IAU, it was classified as a dwarf planet. It was named after the ancient Roman goddess of fertility, Ceres.
With a diameter of about 950 km, Ceres is the largest and most massive body in the asteroid belt, surpasses many large giant planets in size and contains almost a third (32%) of the belt's total mass. It has a spherical shape, unlike most small bodies, which have an irregular shape due to weak gravity. The surface of Ceres is probably a mixture of water ice and various hydrated substances, as well as carbonates (dolomite, siderite) and iron-rich clay minerals (cronstedtite). Ceres is hypothesized to have a rocky core and an icy mantle, and even possibly contains oceans of liquid water below its surface in places. Recently discovered water vapor around a dwarf planet.
The apparent brightness of Ceres ranges from 6.7 to 9.3 magnitudes. This is not enough to be able to distinguish it with the naked eye. On September 27, 2007, NASA launched to study Vesta (2011-2012) and Ceres (2015). March 6, 2015 entered the orbit of Ceres, Earth scientists will be able to study it for 16 months.
Opening
The idea that an undiscovered planet could exist between orbits was first proposed by Johann Elert Bode in 1772. His considerations were based on the Titius-Bode rule, first proposed in 1766 by the German astronomer and mathematician Johann Titius, who claimed to have identified a simple pattern in the orbital radii of the planets known by that time. After the discovery in 1781 by William Herschel, which confirmed this rule, the search for a planet began at a distance of 2.8 AU. e. from the Sun (the distance between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter), which led to the creation in 1800 of a group of 24 astronomers called the "Heavenly Guard". This group, led by von Zach, made daily round-the-clock observations with some of the most powerful telescopes of the time. They did not discover Ceres, however, several other large asteroids were discovered.
Ceres was discovered on January 1, 1801 at the Palermo Astronomical Observatory by the Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi, who was also invited to the Celestial Guard group, but made his discovery before the invitation. He searched for "the 87th star of Mr. la Caille's Catalog of Zodiac Stars", but found that "it was preceded by another". Thus, next to the desired star, he discovered another space object, which he first calculated. Piazzi observed Ceres a total of 24 times (the last sighting was February 11, 1801) until illness interrupted his observations. On January 24, 1801, he announced his discovery in letters to two of his colleagues: his compatriot Barnaba Oriani from Milan and Johann Bode from Berlin. In these letters, he described this object as a comet, but immediately explained that "since its movement is slow and rather uniform, it occurred to me several times that it could be something better than a comet." In April of the same year, Piazzi sent his most complete observations to the colleagues listed above and to Jérôme Lalande in Paris. The observations were published in the September issue of the Monatliche Correspondenz for 1801.
By the time the journal was published, the apparent position of Ceres had changed (mainly due to the orbital motion of the Earth), and due to solar glare, other astronomers were unable to confirm Piazzi's observations. By the end of the year, Ceres could be observed again, but after such a long time, it was difficult to establish its exact position. Especially for determining the orbit of Ceres, Carl Friedrich Gauss at the age of 24 developed an effective method. He set himself the task of finding a way to determine the elements of the orbit from three complete observations (if time, right ascension and declination are known for three points in time). In just a few weeks, he calculated the path of Ceres and sent his results to von Zach. On December 31, 1801, Franz Xaver von Zach, together with Heinrich Olbers, unambiguously confirmed the discovery of Ceres.
The first observers of Ceres were able to calculate its size quite approximately: from 260 km (according to Herschel's calculations in 1802) to 2613 km (calculations by Johann Schroeter, made in 1811).
Name
The original name that Piazzi proposed to the object he discovered was Ceres Ferdinandea, in honor of the Roman goddess of agriculture Ceres and King Ferdinand III of Sicily. The name "Ferdinandea" was unacceptable to other countries of the world, and therefore was subsequently removed. For a short time in Germany, Ceres was called Hera, while in Greece the planet is called Demeter (Greek: Δήμητρα), which is the Greek equivalent of the Roman goddess Ceres. The old astronomical symbol of Ceres is the sickle ⚳ (Sickle variant symbol of Ceres), similar to the symbol ♀, but with a break in the circle; the symbol was later replaced by disc numbering ①. The adjective form of Ceres will be Cererian. The chemical element cerium, discovered in 1803, was named after Ceres. In the same year, another chemical element was also originally named after Ceres, but its discoverer changed its name to palladium (in honor of the discovery of the second large asteroid Pallas) when cerium received the name.
Status
Comparison of Ceres (bottom left) with the Moon (top left) and Earth
The status of Ceres has changed more than once and has been the subject of some controversy. Johann Elert Bode considered Ceres to be the "missing planet" that must have existed between Mars and Jupiter, at a distance of 419 million km (2.8 AU) from the Sun. Ceres was assigned a planetary symbol and for half a century she was considered a planet (along with 2 Pallas, 3 Juno and 4 Vesta), which was captured in astronomical tables and books.
After some time, other objects were discovered in the area between Mars and Jupiter, and it became clear that Ceres is one of these objects. Already in 1802, William Herschel introduced the term "asteroid" (similar to a star) for such bodies, writing:
They resemble small stars so much as hardly to be distinguished from them, even by very good telescopes
Thus, Ceres became the first discovered asteroid.
Discussions about and what the planets are led to consideration of returning Ceres to planetary status. The International Astronomical Union has proposed a definition that a planet is a celestial body that:
a) has sufficient mass to maintain hydrostatic equilibrium under the influence of gravitational forces and have a shape close to round.
b) orbits around and is neither a star nor a satellite of the planet.
This resolution would have made Ceres the fifth planet in terms of distance from the Sun, but was not adopted in that form, and on August 24, 2006, an alternative definition came into force, which introduced the additional requirement that the term "planet" means that a cosmic body, in addition to of the above characteristics, under the influence of its own gravity, it should have “a space free from other bodies” near its orbit. By this definition, Ceres does not fall under the term "planet" because it does not dominate its orbit, but shares it with thousands of other asteroids in the asteroid belt, and makes up only about a third of the total mass. Therefore, it is now classified as a dwarf planet.
On June 11, 2008, the IAU introduced a definition for a special category of dwarf planets - "plutoids". This category includes those dwarf planets whose orbital radius is greater than the orbital radius. Since it is quite difficult to determine the shape and relation to the class of dwarf planets at such a distance, we decided to temporarily classify all objects whose absolute magnitude (brilliance from a distance of 1 AU) is brighter than +1. Of the currently known dwarf planets, only Ceres does not fall into the category of plutoids.
Some sources suggest that once Ceres is classified as a dwarf planet, it is no longer an asteroid. For example, the news on Space.com says that "Pallas, the largest asteroid, and Ceres, a dwarf planet formerly classified as an asteroid," while the International Astronomical Union, when posting a Q&A, states that "Ceres is (or can we now say "was") the largest asteroid", although when it comes to "other asteroids" that cross the path of Ceres, they imply that Ceres is still one of the asteroids. The Minor Planet Center notes that such space objects may have a dual designation. In fact, the 2006 IAU decision that classified Ceres as a dwarf planet did not clarify whether it is or is not now an asteroid, as the IAU never defined the word "asteroid", preferring until 2006 to use the term "minor planet" and after 2006, the terms and "dwarf planet". Kenneth Lang (2011) commented that “The IAU has given a new designation to Ceres, classifying it as a dwarf planet. By [his] definition, both Pluto, as well as the largest asteroid, 1 Ceres, are dwarf planets," and elsewhere describes Ceres as "the dwarf asteroid planet 1 Ceres." NASA, like most academic textbooks, also keeps referring to Ceres as an asteroid, stating, for example, that "Dawn will orbit the two largest asteroids in the main belt."
Orbit
Location of Ceres' orbit
The orbit of Ceres lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter in the asteroid belt and is very "planetary": slightly elliptical (eccentricity 0.08) and has a moderate (10.6 °) inclination to the ecliptic plane compared to Pluto (17 °) and (7 °) . The semi-major axis of the orbit is 2.76 AU. e., distances at perihelion and aphelion - 2.54, 2.98 a.u. e. respectively. The period of revolution around the Sun is 4.6 years. The average distance to the Sun is 2.77 AU. e. (413.9 million km). The average distance between Ceres and the Earth is ~ 263.8 million km. A Cererian day is approximately 9 hours and 4 minutes long.
In the past, Ceres probably belonged to the asteroid family. Asteroids of the same group, as a rule, have the same orbital characteristics, which indicates their common origin. With the help of spectral analysis of Ceres, differences from other members of the group in the asteroid belt were found, and therefore this family is now called the Gefyon Family, after the name of the asteroid with the lowest serial number (1272) Gefyon. Ceres, apparently, with this family of asteroids has only a common orbit, and not a common origin.
Orbit of Ceres
The image shows the orbit of Ceres (highlighted in blue) and the orbits of some other planets (highlighted in white and gray). The darker color is the region of the orbit below the ecliptic, and the orange plus in the center is the Sun. The top left diagram shows the location of Ceres' orbit between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The top right diagram shows the location of perihelion (q) and aphelion (Q) of Ceres and Mars. The perihelion of Mars is on the opposite side of the Sun compared to the perihelion of Ceres and the perihelion of several of the larger asteroids such as 2 Pallas and 10 Hygiea. The bottom diagram shows the inclination of Ceres' orbit relative to the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
In 2011, employees of the Paris Observatory, after computer simulations taking into account the behavior of 8 planets of the solar system, as well as Pluto, Ceres, Pallas, Vesta, Iris and Bamberga, found that Ceres and Vesta had orbital instability and the possibility of their collision with a probability of 0.2% in for one billion years.
| Name of the planet | Weight | δe | δi | δθ | δω | δε | δχ | δα |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1:(8×106) | −0,000018 | +0,000044 | −0,000241 | +0,000484 | +0,071482 | +0,000488 | +3×10 −7 | |
| 1:(41×104) | −0,000025 | +0,000227 | −0,027558 | +0,037903 | +1,446688 | +0,038375 | +3×10 −6 | |
| 1:329390 | −0,000536 | +0,000011 | −0,106807 | +0,092360 | +1,887510 | +0,094189 | −4×10 −7 | |
| 1:(3085×103) | +0,000069 | +0,000359 | −0,039992 | +0,064190 | +0,239440 | +0,064875 | +4×10 −7 | |
| 1:(1047,35) | −0,6752 | −0,5772 | −52,184 | +55,909 | −56,053 | +56,802 | −2×10 −4 | |
| 1:(3501,6) | −0,022 | −0,041 | −1,411 | +1,290 | −2,125 | +1,314 | −1×10 −4 | |
| 1:22650 | +0,00025 | +0,000002 | −0,02712 | +0,02327 | −0,03735 | +0,02373 | +3×10 −5 | |
| 1:19350 | +0,000013 | −0,000229 | −0,007816 | +0,007691 | −0,011239 | +0,007825 | −1×10 −5 |
Jacques Laskar writes in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics that "Ceres and Vesta are likely to collide, with a probability of 0.2% per billion years" and that "even if space missions make it possible to make very accurate measurements of the positions of Ceres and Vesta, their movements will be unpredictable in 400,000 years.” This study significantly reduces the ability to predict changes in the Earth's orbit.
Planetary observation from Ceres
When viewed from Ceres, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are inner planets and can pass across the disk of the Sun. The most common astronomical transit of Mercury, which usually occurs once every few years (the last time could be observed in 2006 and 2010). For Venus, the transit dates correspond to 1953 and 2051, for Earth - 1814 and 2081, and for Mars - 767 and 2684.
Although Ceres is located inside the asteroid belt, the probability of seeing at least one asteroid with the naked eye is small. Only a few of the largest of them appear from time to time in the sky of Ceres in the form of faint stars. Small asteroids can only be seen during extremely rare close encounters.
physical characteristics
Dimensions of Ceres compared to some satellites of the planets.
Ceres is the largest known object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Its mass was determined based on an analysis of the impact on smaller asteroids. The results obtained by different researchers are slightly different. Taking into account the three most accurate values measured by 2008, it is believed that the mass of Ceres is 9.4 10 20 kg, which is almost a third of the entire mass of the asteroid belt (3.0 ± 0.2 10 21 kg), but at the same time more than 6000 times inferior to the mass of the Earth and is about 1.3% of the mass of the moon. The significant mass of Ceres led to the fact that under the influence of its own gravity, this celestial body, like many other planetoids, acquired a shape close to spherical, with dimensions of 975 × 909 km. This distinguishes Ceres from other large asteroids, such as 2 Pallas, 3 Juno and 10 Hygiea, which, as you know, are not spherical in shape. The surface area of Ceres is 2,849,631 km²; this is more than the area of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, but less than the area of Yakutia and slightly more than the area of Argentina.
The structure of Ceres
The structure of Ceres: 1 - a thin layer of regolith; 2 - ice mantle; 3 - stone core
Unlike most asteroids, after acquiring a spherical shape, gravitational differentiation of the internal structure began on Ceres - heavier rocks moved to the central part, lighter ones formed the surface layer. Thus, a stone core and cryomancy from water ice were formed. Judging by the low density of Ceres, the thickness of its mantle reaches 100 kilometers (23-28% of the mass of Ceres; 50% of its volume), and in addition, it contains a significant amount of ice, which occupies 200 million cubic kilometers, which exceeds the amount of fresh water on Earth . These findings are supported by observations made by Keck in 2002 and by evolutionary modeling. In addition, some characteristics of the surface and geological history (for example, Ceres' long distance from the Sun, due to which solar radiation is attenuated enough to allow some components with a low freezing point to remain in its composition during formation), indicate the presence of volatile substances in the interior of Ceres. .
At the initial stage of its existence, the core of Ceres could be heated due to radioactive decay, and, perhaps, some part of the icy mantle was in a liquid state. Apparently, a significant part of the surface is now covered with ice or some kind of ice regolith. By analogy with the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn, it can be assumed that under the influence of the UV radiation of the Sun, part of the water dissociates and forms an extremely rarefied "atmosphere" of Ceres. The question of the presence of cryovolcanism on Ceres now or in the past also remains open.
Ceres has no satellites. At least for now, observations rule out the existence of satellites larger than 10-20 km.
Surface
A bright spot in images of Ceres taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2003-2004. with a resolution of 30 km/pixel
In the earth's sky, Ceres appears as a faint star of only 7th magnitude. The visible disk of Ceres is very small, so the first details could only be seen at the end of the 20th century using the Hubble orbital telescope. Several light and dark structures, presumably craters, are distinguishable on the surface of Ceres. By tracking them, it was possible to accurately determine the period of rotation of Ceres (9.07 hours) and the inclination of the axis of rotation to the plane of the orbit (less than 4 °). The brightest structure in honor of the discoverer of Ceres received the code name "Piazzi". Perhaps this is a crater that exposed the icy mantle or even a cryovolcano. Observations in the IR range have shown that the average surface temperature is 167 K (−106 °C), at perihelion it can reach 240 K (−33 °C). The radio telescope in Arecibo has conducted several studies of Ceres in the radio wave range. By the nature of the reflection of radio waves, it was found that the surface of Ceres is quite smooth, apparently due to the high elasticity of the icy mantle.
In 2014, the International Astronomical Union approved two themes for naming features on the surface of Ceres: the names of the gods/goddesses of agriculture and vegetation for craters, and the names of agricultural festivals for other details.
On July 13, 2015, the first 17 names were assigned to the craters of Ceres. The crater in which the famous bright spot is located was named Occator after the ancient Roman deity of harrowing.
Further research
The brightest spot on Ceres, captured by the Dawn station from a distance of 46,000 km on February 19, 2015. It turned out that this spot consists of two parts located in the Occator crater.
Until 2015, telescopic observations remained the only way to study Ceres. Campaigns were regularly conducted to observe the occultations of stars by Ceres, and its mass was specified by disturbances in the motion of neighboring asteroids and Mars.
In January 2014, clumps of water vapor around Ceres were reported using the Herschel infrared telescope. Thus, Ceres became the fourth body of the solar system, on which water activity was recorded (after Earth, Enceladus and, possibly, Europa).
April 20, 2014 took the first ever pictures of asteroids (Ceres and Vesta) from the surface of Mars.
A qualitatively new stage in the study of Ceres was the AMS Dawn mission (NASA), launched on September 27, 2007. In 2011, Dawn went into orbit around Vesta, and after a year in her orbit, went to Ceres. On January 13, 2015, Dawn took the first detailed pictures of the surface of Ceres. On February 8, he was already 118,000 km from Ceres, approaching it at a speed of 360 km / h.
A group of bright spots inside the Occator crater in a detailed image taken by the Dawn station in August 2015. In earlier low-resolution images, they merge into one large spot
On March 6, 2015, the device went into orbit around Ceres, from where it should conduct research for 16 months.
On April 10, 2015, Dawn took a series of images of the planet's surface near the north pole. They were made from a distance of 33 thousand kilometers.
On May 16, 2015, the robotic interplanetary station Dawn obtained the highest quality image to date of the mysterious white spots on the surface of the dwarf planet Ceres.
The Dawn data made it possible to refine the mass and size of Ceres in the direction of decreasing. The equatorial diameter of Ceres is 963 km, the polar diameter is 891 km. The mass of Ceres is 9.39 10 20 kg.
Names of 17 craters on the surface elevation map of Ceres (red tones are high areas, blue are low areas)
The China National Space Administration plans to deliver soil samples from Ceres in the 2020s.The dwarf planet Ceres is an asteroid-type planet. Ceres was discovered on the evening of January 1, 1801 by the Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi. This is the most massive celestial body in the asteroid belt and is larger than many large satellites of the giant planets. For a long time, Ceres was considered as a full-fledged planet, later it was classified as an asteroid, and according to the results of clarifying the concept of a planet by the International Astronomical Union on August 24, 2006, at the XXVI General Assembly of the IAU, it was classified as a dwarf planet. The orbit of Ceres lies between the orbits of Mars and is very "planetary": slightly elliptical and has a moderate inclination to the plane of the ecliptic equal to 10 °. The period of revolution around the Sun is 4.6 years. The dwarf planet Ceres has the shape of a spheroid measuring 975x909 km. Its mass is 9.5x1020 kg, which is almost a third of the entire mass of the asteroid belt, but at the same time, it is more than 6000 times inferior to the mass. The significant mass of Ceres led to the fact that under the influence of its own gravity, this celestial body, like many other planetoids, acquired a shape close to spherical.
However, its evolution did not end there and, unlike most asteroids, differentiation of the internal structure began on Ceres - heavier rocks sank to the center, lighter ones rose to the surface. Thus, a stone core and a mantle of water ice were formed. Judging by the low density of Ceres, it contains a significant amount of ice, up to 20-30% by mass, which is equivalent to an ice mantle 60-100 km thick. At the initial stage of its existence, the core of Ceres could be heated due to radioactive decay, and, perhaps, some part of the icy mantle was in a liquid state. Apparently, a significant part of the surface is now covered with ice or some kind of ice regolith. By analogy with the icy satellites of Jupiter, it can be assumed that under the influence of the UV radiation of the Sun, part of the water dissociates and forms an extremely rarefied "atmosphere" of Ceres. The question of the presence of cryovolcanism on Ceres now or in the past also remains open.
Not much is known about the appearance of Ceres. On the earth's sky, it appears as a weak star of only the 7th magnitude. The visible disk of Ceres is very small, so the first details could only be seen at the end of the 20th century using the Hubble orbital telescope. On the surface, the dwarf planet Ceres has several light and dark structures, presumably craters. By tracking them, it was possible to accurately determine the period of rotation of Ceres (9.07 hours) and the inclination of the axis of rotation to the plane of the orbit (less than 4 °). The brightest structure (see figure on the right) in honor of the discoverer of the planet Ceres was named "Piazzi". Perhaps this is a crater that exposed the icy mantle or even a cryovolcano. Observations in the IR range have shown that the average surface temperature is 167 K, at perihelion it can reach 240 K (-33 °C). The radio telescope in Arecibo has conducted several studies of Ceres in the radio wave range. By the nature of the reflection of radio waves, it was found that the surface of Ceres is quite smooth, apparently due to the high elasticity of the icy mantle. Ceres has no satellites. At least for now, Hubble observations rule out the existence of satellites larger than 10-20 km.
At present, telescopic observations remain the only way to study Ceres. Campaigns are regularly conducted to observe occultations of stars by Ceres, perturbations in the movement of neighboring asteroids, and
Literally six months later, in April 2015, the automatic interplanetary station (AMS) Down ("Dawn") will reach the last goal of its long eight-year space journey - a dwarf planet Ceres. In May 2015, the AMS should enter a "surveillance orbit" around Ceres and begin a systematic detailed study of the surface. Despite the fact that Ceres's orbit lies not too far from Earth - between Mars and Jupiter in the main asteroid belt, so far no spacecraft has honored this mysterious dwarf planet with their attention. At present, we don't even have a good detailed photograph of this celestial body. The best that is available today are photographs taken by the telescope. Hubble in 2003-2004 with a resolution of 30 km/pixel. Below are these photos.
What do we know today about this small mysterious planet, which for a long time had the status of the largest asteroid in the Main Belt of our solar system? Let us briefly remind our readers about the history of the discovery of Ceres.
The idea that an undiscovered planet could exist between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter was first proposed by Johann Elert Bode in 1772. His considerations were based on the Titius-Bode rule, first proposed in 1766 by the German astronomer and mathematician Johann Titius, who claimed to have identified a simple power-law pattern in the increase in the radii of the circumsolar orbits of the planets. After William Herschel's discovery of Uranus in 1781, which met this rule, a search began for a planet at a distance of 2.8 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun (the distance between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter), leading to the creation in 1800 of a group of 24 astronomers, called "Heavenly Guard". This group, led by von Zach, made daily round-the-clock observations with some of the most powerful telescopes of the time. They did not discover Ceres, however, several other large asteroids were discovered.
Ceres was discovered on the evening of January 1 1801 year by the Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi at the Palermo Astronomical Observatory, who was also invited to the Celestial Guard group, but made his discovery before the invitation. On January 24, 1801, he announced his discovery in letters to two of his colleagues. In these letters, he described this object as a comet, but immediately explained that "since its motion is slow and rather uniform, it occurred to me several times that it could be something better than a comet" . However, over the next few months, none of the astronomers could detect this celestial body. But only December 31, 1801 Franz Xaver von Zach, together with Heinrich Olbers, unambiguously confirmed the discovery of Ceres.
Initially, Piazzi proposed the name of this celestial body - Ceres Ferdinandea (Ceres Ferdinandea), in honor of the Roman goddess of agriculture and fertility Ceres and King Ferdinand III of Sicily. However, the name "Ferdinandea" was unacceptable to the rest of the world and was therefore subsequently withdrawn. For a short time in Germany, Ceres was called Hera, while in Greece this planet was called Demeter, which is the Greek equivalent of the Roman goddess Ceres. An old astronomical symbol for Ceres is a crescent, similar to the symbol for Venus ♀, but with a gap in one part of the circle.
Comparative sizes of Ceres, Moon and Earth
Over the years since its discovery, the status of Ceres has changed more than once and has been the subject of some controversy. Johann Elert Bode considered Ceres to be the "missing planet", which must have existed between Mars and Jupiter, at a distance of 419 million km (2.8 AU) from the Sun. Ceres was assigned a planetary symbol, and for half a century she was considered a planet (along with 2 Pallas, 3 Juno and 4 Vesta), which was reflected in astronomical tables and books. After some time, many other objects were discovered in the region between Mars and Jupiter, and it became clear that Ceres is one of such objects. In 1802, William Herschel coined the term "asteroid" (similar to a star) for such bodies. Thus, after some time, Ceres became the first discovered asteroid.
And only by the historic decision of the International Astronomical Union of August 24, 2006, by which Pluto was “demoted” from planets to dwarf planets, the largest asteroid Ceres (1 Ceres), on the contrary, was “promoted”. However, discussions on this issue among astronomers do not subside even now. Larger objects in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter will most likely not be discovered, therefore, Ceres may forever remain the only representative of the dwarf planets in this region of the space of our solar system.
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How did the dwarf planet Ceres, the largest celestial body in the main asteroid belt, form??
According to the main version of scientists, Ceres is considered a planetary embryo that stopped in its development due to the powerful gravitational influence of Jupiter, which did not allow Ceres to gain the necessary amount of matter to turn into a normal "full-sized" planet. In other words, the main culprit for the dwarf size of Ceres is the giant Jupiter, which captured for itself all the cosmic building material in the surrounding space.
Nevertheless, Ceres managed to "grow" to almost a thousand kilometers in size, and its mass is about a quarter of the total mass of objects in the main asteroid belt. Nevertheless, it should be noted that even if she collected all the "building material" of this belt, she would still be 4-5 times lighter than Pluto (not to mention the Moon and the "large" planets).
There are other more exotic hypotheses. For example, in mid-2008, William McKinnon of Washington University in St. Louis put forward a hypothesis of the affinity of two "strange" objects in the solar system - Ceres and Pluto. Such a hypothesis, in turn, leads to the idea of some genetic connection between Ceres and the most studied of the objects of the Kuiper belt - Pluto. Which, in turn, implies the idea of Ceres being "transferred" from the Kuiper belt to the asteroid belt due to the action of a mechanism of incomprehensible nature. Professor McKinnon believes that this would explain a number of unusual properties of Ceres. One of these properties is the very low density of Ceres, which suggests that this asteroid is a third of water ice.
Currently, Ceres is still the smallest celestial body in its category: its equatorial diameter is only 974 km, polar diameter - 910 km. The orbit of Ceres lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter in the asteroid belt and is very "planetary": slightly elliptical (the eccentricity of the whole 0,08 ) and has moderate ( 10.6°) compared to Pluto (17°) and Mercury (7°) inclination to the plane of the ecliptic. Average distance to the Sun 2,77 a. e. (413.9 million km). Period of revolution around the sun - 4,6 of the year. The average distance between Ceres and the Earth is ~ 263.8 million km. Cererian day is 9 hours and 4 minutes.
Diagram of Ceres' orbit
In this diagram, the orbit of Ceres is shown in blue, the orbits of the planets are in white and gray (shaded are the parts of the orbits that lie below the ecliptic plane), the orange cross represents the position of the Sun. The diagram at top left is a view from the pole of the ecliptic showing Ceres in between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The positions of perihelion (q) and aphelion (Q) of Ceres and Mars are shown in greater detail at the top right. It is clearly seen that the perihelion of Ceres (as well as several other largest objects of the main asteroid belt) in relation to the Martian perihelion is located on the other side of the Sun. The diagram below shows the inclination of Ceres' orbit to the planes of the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Estimated Internal Structure of Ceres
Despite its small mass, Ceres has a near-spherical shape, and its interior may have gone through a stage of melting and differentiation, that is, its dense core should be separated from the relatively thin and less dense outer mantle. If at least a quarter of the volume of this mantle is water ice, then In terms of water reserves, Ceres is not inferior to Earth.
The average density of the planet's matter is estimated at about 2,1 g / cc, which indicates the presence of water ice in its composition. According to current models of the internal structure of Ceres, the proportion of ice and other volatile substances is ~ 30% , whereas ~70% belongs to rocks. However, Ceres' surface spectra show clear evidence of magnesium hydroxide and carbonates, but not water ice. In terms of spectral characteristics, Ceres is similar to meteorites of the carbonaceous chondrite type, but it also resembles C-type asteroids: its spectra contain absorption bands associated with hydrates of various minerals and hydroxyls, which are characteristic of some asteroids, but absent in meteorites.
The maximum temperature recorded on the surface of Ceres reaches 235 ± 4K ( -38 ± 4°С), at such temperatures ice quickly sublimates. The surface of Ceres is dry and dark, like a fairly melted spring snowdrift. Indeed, the surface of the planet reflects only 9% falling light. According to one hypothesis, subsurface water ice, heated by sunlight, sublimates, turning into steam, which breaks out through cracks in the crust. According to another hypothesis, the source of heating and sublimation of ice is the residual internal activity of Ceres.
Indeed, as recently as January 2014, the Herschel space observatory detected water vapor around Ceres, and this vapor may come from water jets similar to the geysers of Enceladus, Saturn's moon. Or perhaps it is cryovolcanism from geysers or an ice volcano. It seems that now it can be argued that Ceres also has the properties of a comet. Scientists involved in the processing of data obtained by the Herschel Observatory believe that the simplest explanation for the appearance of water vapor is sublimation, when the ice heats up and immediately turns into a gaseous form.
These are, in brief, the main information known to us today about this mysterious small planet wandering in the middle of the Main Asteroid Belt.
Of course, the mission of the AMS apparatus should become a qualitatively new stage in the study of Ceres Dawn, which will begin in the spring of next year.
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Despite its very modest size compared to other "full" planets, Ceres is a very mysterious celestial body. And, of course, first of all, the mystery of Ceres is connected with the most ancient dead planet. Phaeton – the former cosmic ancestral home of humanity on Earth. In her letters of November 12, 1946 and April 13, 1954, Helena Roerich reported the following.
“After all, our Moon and even our Earth have already witnessed the death of a beautiful inhabited planet, and in its place and now rush in a multitude of fragments of it in the form of aerolites. Some inhabitants of the Earth once lived on this lost planet.
“Our humanity has already once experienced the disintegration of its house, due to its collision with the huge Fireball, and then experienced a passionately difficult existence of adaptation to other, less developed, planets.”
We remind our readers that a series of articles is dedicated to the planet, posted on the pages of our website under the heading "Reflections on space".
In his essay "Moon" Helena Roerich also wrote that the main asteroid belt of our solar system was formed as a result of the death of Phaeton and the subsequent disintegration of its moon. “The moon of the most ancient and dead Planet dissipated after the collision of the planet with giant fireballs. The moon of the dead planet was much more powerful and more beautiful than our moon and even Venus" . (“New Epoch”, No. 1/20, p. 54, 1999)
This means that Phaeton's moon could be comparable in size to our Venus. In this way, The asteroid belt was formed as a result of the breakup of two planetary bodies of considerable size. Phaeton died and disintegrated as a result of a collision with giant fireballs (asteroids), and his moon broke up later due to the complete completion of the cycle of its evolution. Of course, this does not mean that Phaeton could not have other smaller satellites. It is possible that some of them, located closest to Phaethon, also underwent disintegration as a result of the catastrophe, while the more distant ones could have survived, then changing the trajectories of their movement.
For this reason, some researchers believe that Ceres could be one of such surviving small satellites of the deceased Phaethon. Indeed, after all, Ceres, revolving around the Sun at an average distance of 2,77 a. e., is located almost in the very center of the Main asteroid belt (2.2 - 3.6 AU). If so, then Ceres must be a very ancient cosmic body, which could be several billion years old.
It is interesting that a similar hypothesis was put forward in 2006 by a young researcher Andrei Khlopin. We have already talked about this talented boy and his work in more detail in the essay. The essence of his hypothesis (the third in a row) is as follows.
Andrey Khlopin
“It is logical to propose a third hypothesis (scenario) of the origin of the asteroid belt, suggesting the existence of PHAETON PLANET, WHICH HAD supposedly 6-8 satellites. planets and the formation of large and small fragments. Then, for millions of years and up to the present day, the fragments collided with each other - there was a crushing process. There were collisions with the satellites of the planet Phaeton. When colliding with large debris, the satellites were destroyed, replenishing the asteroid belt with new debris. It is permissible to assume that Ceres is the largest asteroid with a diameter of 930 km. and a spherical shape, one of the surviving satellites of Phaethon. Collisions led to the deviation of the trajectory of numerous large and small fragments, which, having left the asteroid belt, subjected the planets and satellites of the solar system to “bombardment”.
The results of studies of the chemical composition of meteorites logically fit into the third hypothesis, which indicate that meteorites are not the product of the fission of one parent body. The third hypothesis (scenario) of the origin of the asteroid belt sheds light on the impossibility, from the orbits of asteroids, to determine the orbit of (one) parent planet and the region of its explosion. The truth of this hypothesis will be able to confirm or refute further studies of the belt of asteroids and meteorites..
On the whole, as we see, Andrey Khlopin's hypothesis is in good agreement with the main statements of Esoteric Cosmogony.
There are many conjectures and assumptions about the origin of Ceres and its internal structure.
For example, some researchers do not exclude that Ceres is the inner shells of Phaethon itself, preserved after the catastrophe, which originally had a spherical shape.
Others note that Ceres in its structure is very similar to the Kuiper belt minor planets far from the Sun. And in ancient times, as a result of the gravitational influence of one of the giant planets, Ceres could be "thrown" from the far periphery into the inner part of our solar system.
Of course, one cannot exclude a more prosaic version of the formation of Ceres after the catastrophe of Phaethon and the merger of the planetary system of the already extinct sun Jupiter with the inner planets in the process of the formation of our current solar system.
We remind readers that there are certain grounds for believing that the dead most ancient planet Phaeton belonged to the solar system Jupiter . We have already talked about this in a series of essays.
So, we see that the little mysterious Ceres is still stubbornly hiding from us its origin and possible connection with the deceased. Phaeton.
Unfortunately, neither in the letters of Helena Roerich, nor in her cosmological and diary entries is there any information about the role of minor planets in the structure and functioning of our solar system.
Hopefully, the veil of Ceres' mystery will be lifted at least a little if the AMS space exploration mission is successfully completed. Down in 2015 - 2016
Ceres is a dwarf planet that "lives" in the inner part of the asteroid belt of the solar system. It is characterized as the closest dwarf planet to Earth (263 million km). Ceres was discovered by the scientist Giuseppe Piacii in 1801, who is an employee of the Palermo Observatory. Initially it was assumed that Ceres belongs to the full-fledged planets, but in 1802 it was classified as an asteroid. Only in 2006, the International Astronomical Union identified Ceres as a dwarf planet, which was named after the ancient Roman mythical character - the goddess of fertility.
The diameter of Ceres is 950 km, which is why it can be safely ranked among the largest bodies in the asteroid belt. In size, it surpasses even the moons of the gas giants. Ceres makes up about 32% of the total mass of objects in the asteroid belt. Observations made by modern ground and space machines have shown that its shape is close to spherical. Usually, bodies of similar dimensions have an irregular shape due to reduced gravity.
The surface of the dwarf planet, apparently, consists of a mixture of water ice with hydrated minerals (clay, carbonates). Scientists suggest that the core of Ceres consists of rock and an icy mantle. It is possible that under the surface of the dwarf planet there are oceans with liquid water. Not so long ago, the Herschel telescope recorded water vapor emanating from it.
From Earth, Ceres is difficult to see without special equipment, since its brightness is only 6.7-9.3. To get more information about objects of this kind, NASA launched the DAWN probe exclusively to study Vesta and Ceres.
Discovery of Ceres
In 1772 I.E. Bode first suggested that there is another object between Jupiter and Mars, which is most likely a planet. This assumption of the astronomer was primarily based on the Titius-Bode rule. After the discovery of Uranus by William Herschel, who was guided by the same principles of calculating celestial objects, in 1800 a group of 24 scientists was formed under the name "Heavenly Guard". Its participants, led by von Zach, made daily observations of the sky using the most powerful machines of the time. Then they failed to detect Ceres, but in the course of their work they discovered several large-sized asteroids.
As mentioned above, Ceres was discovered in 1801 by J. Piatia, who was also wanted to be included in the Heavenly Guard group. But the scientist made his discovery before that. He originally specialized in searching for the "87th" star of the Zodiac Catalog, but found that it was preceded by another." Instead of an "extra" luminary, he discovered a cosmic body, which the scientist first mistook for a comet.
About a month after the discovery, the scientist decided to tell his two colleagues, B. Oriani and I. Bode, about what had happened. In his letters, Piacii spoke of the object as a comet, but also explained that he did not rule out that it could be something else. The scientist was prompted to this idea by too slow and uniform movement of the body.
A few months later, Piacity collected more information about the new object and sent them in a letter to his French colleague, J. Lalande. Soon the observations were published in the journal Monatliche Correspondenz.
But by the time the article with new data was published, the position of Ceres had changed, and astronomers could not approve the discovery of Piatia. But by the end of the year, the object was again well visualized in the night sky.
At that time, a young scientist named K. Friedrich Gauss was developing a new, but very promising method for determining the orbit of space bodies. His task was to calculate the orbit from three observations, during each of which the object was estimated by right ascension and declination. It took Gauss only a few weeks to calculate the path of Ceres, after which he sent his calculations to von Zach, after which the discovery of Ceres was approved.
Scientists observing Ceres for the first time were also able to calculate its size. According to Herschel's calculations, the diameter of the object was 260 km.
Name
Piatia was the first to propose a name for the object he discovered. He expressed a desire to name it Ceres Ferdinand in honor of the Sicilian king Ferdinand and the Roman goddess of fertility Ceres. The second word of the title was removed on the grounds that it was unacceptable to other countries.
In Germany, the object was proposed to be called Hera or Demeter, who is also the patroness of agriculture, but only among the ancient Greeks. The symbol of Ceres was previously a sickle, similar to the symbol of Venus. Later, a different symbol was assigned to it - a unit in the center of the circle.
Also, in honor of this dwarf planet, a chemical element was named - cerium, which later received a different name - palladium, symbolizing the discovery of a large asteroid Pallas.
Status of Ceres
The status of the object has changed more than once. I. Eler Bode believed that Ceres is the very "missing planet", enclosed in the gap between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. Ceres was also ranked among the same planets as 4 Vesta, 2 Pallas and 3 Juno, as mentioned in many early astronomical books.
Some time later, in the interval between Jupiter and Mars, in addition to Ceres, other objects were found, which in 1810 were given the term "asteroid" by William Herschel.
This meant that Ceres was the very first discovered asteroid. In the course of numerous disputes about what Pluto really is, Ceres was returned to the status of a planet. According to the generally accepted opinion, Ceres fully met the definition of a planet. A cosmic body can be considered a planet if it:
A) It has sufficient mass to acquire and constantly maintain the correct spherical shape under the force of gravity.
B) Revolve around the luminary, being neither a satellite of any of the planets, nor another star
Only by these two criteria could Ceres be classified as a full-fledged planet, as a result of which it could become the fifth planet from the Sun. But in 2006, additional requirements were introduced. For example, to be called a planet, a space object must have an “empty” area near its orbit, free from other bodies. Ceres does not meet this criterion because there are a huge number of asteroids near its orbit. That is why scientists unanimously ranked it among the dwarf planets.
Further in 2008, the MAC introduced an additional category for the definition of dwarf planets - "plutoids". It includes all dwarf planets whose shaven radius exceeds the orbital radius of Neptune. In view of the fact that it can be difficult to determine the shape of objects at such a distance, scientists decided to refer to plutoids all objects corresponding to a star magnitude greater than +1. As for Ceres, it also does not fall into this category.
Today there is an opinion that if Ceres has been defined as a dwarf planet since 2006, then it no longer belongs to asteroids. For example, on the astronomical Internet resource space.com, it is said that "That Ceres is a dwarf planet and Pallas is a large asteroid, both were previously classified as asteroids." The International Astronomical Union made a clarification on this issue, stating that Ceres was one of the largest asteroids.But, if we are talking about asteroids encountered on the way of crossing Ceres, then it is customary to consider it as an asteroid.Representatives of the Center for Minor Planets note that double designations should be assigned to cosmic bodies of this type.
In fact, when the IAU decided to classify Ceres as a dwarf planet, it was not mentioned whether it loses the status of an "asteroid" or not. The fact is that until that time the IAU had not given an exact definition of the term “asteroid”, and until 2006 bodies of this type were called “minor planets”, and after “Small bodies of the solar system”. As for NASA scientists, they consider it preferable to mention Ceres not only as a dwarf planet, but also as an asteroid.
The orbit of a dwarf planet lies in the gap between the Martian and Jupiter orbits in the asteroid belt region. It is characterized as slightly elliptical with an eccentricity of 0.08 and has a moderate angle of inclination to the ecliptic plane (10.6°).
The period of revolution of Ceres around the star is 4.6 years. The distance at which it is from the Sun is estimated at 2.77 AU. Ceres is separated from Earth by 263 million km. A day on Ceres is 9 hours 4 minutes.
It is possible that Ceres previously belonged to the family of asteroids. If asteroids have many coincidences in orbital characteristics, then this may be a reliable sign of their common origin. In the course of the spectral analysis of the dwarf planet, it was possible to reveal significant differences from the asteroids surrounding it - objects of the Gefien Family. Scientists believe that with these objects the dwarf planet has only a common orbit, which cannot be said about the origin.
In 2011, employees of the Paris Observatory, who are engaged in reproducing the "real picture" of 8 major planets, as well as Pluto, the Moon, Inida, Pallas, Ceres, Vesta and Bamberga by computer simulation, revealed that Vesta and Ceres specifically have a tendency to " disorderly behavior.
Jacques Lascar, in one of the issues of Astronomy & Astrophysics, said that the 0.2% probability of a collision between Ceres and Vesta is being questioned due to the fact that their further movements will be impossible to predict in 400 thousand years.
Planetary observation from Ceres
When observing many planets from Ceres, such as Earth, Venus, Mars and Mercury, from its surface they will look like internal ones and will be able to pass through the disk of a star.
Despite the fact that Ceres orbits inside the asteroid belt, it would be impossible to see asteroids from its surface with the naked eye. Only a few of the largest would occasionally appear in the sky of Ceres in the form of dim stars. Smaller asteroids could be seen extremely rarely - during infrequent bodily encounters.
Physical characteristics of Ceres
Ceres is the largest asteroid belt object ever discovered. Its mass indicators were revealed by the principle of its influence on smaller bodies located near the dwarf planet. Of course, the results obtained in the course of different studies vary. But, if we take into account the most accurate of them, then the mass of Ceres is 9.4 10 20 kg, which practically corresponds to 30% of the mass of all objects included in this belt, but is 6 thousand times inferior to the mass indicators of our planet.
Thanks to its own gravitational force, caused by the relatively large mass of Ceres, it acquired the correct spherical shape. It is this feature that distinguishes the dwarf planet from other large asteroids (2 Pallas and 3 Juno and 10 Gigei)
Ceres is composed of a rocky core, a layer of icy mantle, and a thin layer of regolith.
The main difference between this dwarf planet and other large asteroids is that even after the formation of a spherical shape under the influence of gravity, significant metamorphoses also began to occur in its depths. For example, rock composed of heavier elements began to move to the center, and lighter components became components of the surface layer of the object. According to this principle, the stone core of Ceres and cryomancy, consisting of water ice, were formed.
Due to the fact that Ceres has a fairly low density, the thickness of its mantle, according to preliminary estimates of scientists, is about 28% of its total mass and 50% of the volume of the object. Also, its mantle contains a large amount of ice with a volume of 200 million cubic meters. meters, which greatly exceeds the amount of fresh water on our planet.
This information was confirmed in the process of observations made by the Keck telescope, as well as in evolutionary modeling. Also, some characteristics of the upper layers of the dwarf planet and geological history (for example, the fact that the object is too far from the star, which is explained by the fact that some components with a low freezing point have been preserved in its composition since the formation of the object), indicate the possible presence in the bowels of Ceres volatile substances.
Perhaps, in the early stages of formation, the core of the dwarf planet was heated from radioactive decay. This gives good reason to believe that some of Ceres' icy mantle may have been in a fluid state. Moreover, today part of its surface is covered with ice and regolith. Judging by the icy satellites of Saturn and Jupiter, which have been studied more carefully, it can be assumed that under the influence of UV rays, part of the "internal" water evaporates, forming a highly rarefied "atmosphere" of a dwarf planet. Today, scientists are working to clarify the issue of the presence on Ceres of such a phenomenon as cryovolcanism.
Ceres is believed to have no moons. Even the Hubble telescope denies their existence so far.
Surface of Ceres
Not much is known about the actual appearance of the dwarf planet. In the night sky, it is visualized as a small star of the 7th magnitude. Due to its great remoteness and relatively small size, it was possible to see its visible disk only in the 20th century, thanks to the Hubble space machine. The images taken by the orbiting telescope clearly show several light and dark structures on the surface of Ceres. They are probably craters. With the help of regular tracking of their movement, scientists were able to most accurately establish the period of rotation of the object, equal to 9.07 hours, as well as the inclination of the axis of rotation with respect to the plane of the orbit - approximately 4 °. It was decided to call one of the brightest structures (spots) visible on the images of the surface of Ceres "Piatia". It is likely that this is a large crater, through which a layer of icy mantle is visible and, probably, a cryovolcano. The results of studies of the surface of Ceres in the infrared wave range indicate that the average temperature on it is -106 ° C, at perihelion - -33 ° C.
With the help of one of the largest ground-based telescopes, the Arecibo radio telescope, it was possible to establish that the surface of the dwarf planet is relatively smooth, which is explained by the high elasticity of the icy mantle.
In 2014, the International Astronomical Union decided that the names of the surface structures of a dwarf planet can be any names related to two topics:
Names of deities of fertility and agriculture
Names of major festivals and festivities dedicated to agriculture.
Further research
Today, telescopic studies are the most optimal and affordable way to study the planet. Scientists are currently observing the occultation of stars by Ceres from the oscillations and movements of its neighboring objects and Mars.
In early 2014, scientists reported the presence of small clumps of water vapor near the surface from a dwarf planet. This phenomenon was discovered in the process of observing the object using the Herschel telescope. At the moment, Ceres is the fourth object in the solar system, which recorded the presence of water.
Also in 2012, the Curiosity Mars rover took pictures of distant asteroids, against which Ceres is also visible.
A new breakthrough in the study of Ceres came with the launch of NASA's AMC Dawn. In 2015 it will reach Ceres. Already on January 13, the device produced the first pictures of the surface of the dwarf planet.
