Ceres

Measured

Mean radius

470 km

From the Earth today

2 AU (300 million km)

How far, from the Earth

2 AU. To cross it:

• Light17 minutes
• Voyager 1's speed6.76 months
• Driving at 100 km/h342 years

Voyager 1 at the speed it moved outward over the year to 2026-10-25 (JPL Horizons). Driving: nonstop, never refuelling.

Spacecraft that went there

• Dawn (retired) — Mission over — it missed its contacts on 2018-10-31 and 11-01, its hydrazine believed gone. It is silent in orbit round Ceres, where it arrived on 2015-03-06. Nobody tracks it: its position since 2018-10-31 is JPL's prediction, which leaves out whatever Dawn's last moments did to its orbit (Horizons). There since 2015-03-06.

Where this comes from

• Planets, Pluto, the Moon and Jupiter's big moons: astronomy-engine (Don Cross, MIT). Other moons: JPL Planetary Satellite Mean Elements. Ceres, Eris, Haumea, Makemake: JPL Small-Body Database. NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Every catalogue Ouranos draws is credited on the credits page.