When Sicilian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi spotted Ceres in 1801, he thought it was a planet. Astronomers didn’t know about asteroids at that time. Now we know there’s an enormous quantity of them, primarily residing in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Ceres is about 1,000 km in diameter and accounts for a third of the mass in the main asteroid belt. It dwarfs most of the other bodies in the belt. Now we know that it’s a planet—albeit a dwarf one—even though its neighbours are mostly asteroids.
But what’s a dwarf planet doing in the asteroid belt?
A new research article provides the answer: Ceres didn’t form in the asteroid belt. It formed further out in the Solar System and then migrated to its current position. This isn’t the first study to reach that conclusion, but it adds weight to the idea.
Read more: https://www.universetoday.com/155938/ce ... ed-inward/
Ceres Probably Formed Farther out in the Solar System and Migrated Inward
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fred8615
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Ceres Probably Formed Farther out in the Solar System and Migrated Inward
Frederick J. Barnett
"Someone's got to take the responsibility if the job's going to get done!! Do you think that's easy?!" Gregory Peck - The Guns Of Navarone
"Someone's got to take the responsibility if the job's going to get done!! Do you think that's easy?!" Gregory Peck - The Guns Of Navarone