However, Ceres’ composition and substantial water content imply that it was produced in the outermost solar complex where other minor worlds orbit. Ceres is unique among the asteroid belt bodies in that it was visited by NASA’s Dawn probe in 2015. It’s indeed almost 600 miles (946 km) in diameter and round as a result of its own gravitational rounding. Vesta and Pallas are the only other spherical objects in the belt.
Ceres has a core, mantle, & crust, much like the terrestrial worlds. In addition to water, clays and carbonates make up the crust, which Dawn was able to map. Water ice makes up the mantle, whereas rock makes up the core. On its underside, Ceres may have traces of an ocean like those seen on Pluto and the ice moons Europa and Enceladus.
Unlike other asteroids in the belt, Ceres’ surface is covered with ammonia, a chemical that is significantly more abundant in the outermost planetary system. Between Mars and Jupiter, ammonia is generally evaporated by the Sun’s heat. Volatile compounds, including ammonia, are more frequent in cooler locations like the Kuiper Belt.
Gas & ice giant planets may have originated near the Sun and spread outward during the early, tumultuous years of the solar system, according to one theory. Smaller, farther-out asteroids like Ceres were knocked off course, and some moved inside, while others were obliterated in cataclysmic collisions, and yet others were expelled from the solar scheme entirely.
As many as 3,500 similar-sized planets in the distant solar system had to reside so just for even one to withstand the countless collisions that occurred during the solar system’s early years and wind up in its current position, per the computer simulations done by the scientists.
The findings were y published in the journal Icarus.
