Ceres (dwarf planet)

Ceres is the asteroid belt's dwarf planet. It was classified as such, along with Pluto (in the Kuiper belt) and Eris (in the scattered disc) when this new category was created by the IAU in 2006. Ceres was discovered by Piazzi on the first days of the 19th century. In the beginning Piazzi thought that he discovered a new comet. Only after Carl Friedrich Gauß calculated the course of the object they found out that it was something between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter. Due to this calculations Ceres could be found again on 11. february 1801 by Zach. Ceres was originally classified as a planet, albeit a strangely small one; but after the discovery of 2 Pallas, 3 Juno, 4 Vesta and other small bodies with nearby orbits, it was reclassified as the largest asteroid, '1 Ceres', and some still refer to it as such.