Asteroid Ceres

Ceres is the largest object in the main asteroid belt that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

Ceres was found by an astronomer searching for a star. He thought he found a comet, but with the help of other astronomers decided it was a planet.

Ceres takes 1,682 Earth days, or 4.6 Earth years, to make one trip around the sun.

Ceres completes one rotation around its axis every 9 hours.

Ceres is so much bigger and so different from its neighbors that scientists classified it as a dwarf planet in 2006.

Scientists would like to search for possible signs of life on Ceres. It has something many other planets don't.