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Ceres is the largest object in the main asteroid belt

Accounting for a third of the asteroid belt mass Ceres is a dwarf planet

Discovered in 1801, Ceres has a diameter of roughly 940 kilometres and accounts for approximately one third of the entire mass of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union classified Ceres as a dwarf planet alongside Pluto.

Ceres Rotation photograph
NASA, ESA, J. Parker (Southwest Research Institute), P. Thomas (Cornell University), and L. McFadden (University of Mary ยท Public domain ยท source

Where this comes from

NASA Science

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Tags: ceres, asteroid belt, dwarf planet

Ceres is the largest object in the main asteroid belt: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
Accounting for a third of the asteroid belt mass Ceres is a dwarf planet. The figure is taken from NASA Science, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
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Yes. It sits on the Space shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
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