Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. With a diameter of 945 km, it is considered as a dwarf planet and is the only one inside Neptune’s orbit (i.e. the other ones including Pluto are way beyond Neptune).
The NASA deep space probe Dawn entered orbit around Ceres in March 2015 and will probably remain there for at least 20 years before impacting the dwarf planet.
| COSPAR ID | name | type | mission | quantity | mass (kg) | status | date/epoch (UTC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007-043A | DAWN (DISCOVERY 9) | Asteroid probe | DAWN (DISCOVERY 9) | 1 | 747.1 | EOM, defunct | November 1, 2018 |