Q 01/05

Where in the Solar System is the dwarf planet Ceres?

A) In the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter

B) Among Jupiter's Trojans

C) In the Kuiper belt beyond Neptune

D) Between Earth and Mars

Answer · why

A) In the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter

It is the only dwarf planet inside Neptune's orbit and the largest object in the belt.

Q 02/05

Who discovered Ceres, and on what date?

A) Giuseppe Piazzi, 1 January 1801

B) William Herschel, 13 March 1781

C) Johann Galle, 23 September 1846

D) Clyde Tombaugh, 18 February 1930

Answer · why

A) Giuseppe Piazzi, 1 January 1801

A Catholic priest in Palermo, he found it on the first night of the 19th century while checking a star catalogue.

Q 03/05

Piazzi found Ceres from an observatory on which island?

A) Malta

B) Crete

C) Sardinia

D) Sicily

Answer · why

D) Sicily

Ceres, the goddess of grain, had her oldest temple in Sicily, which suited the name.

Q 04/05

What did Piazzi first think his moving object was?

A) A comet

B) A planet

C) A new star

D) A moon of Mars

Answer · why

A) A comet

Its slow, steady motion soon made him suspect something better than a comet.

Q 05/05

Which 24-year-old mathematician invented a new orbit method to recover Ceres after it was lost in the Sun's glare?

A) Joseph-Louis Lagrange

B) Pierre-Simon Laplace

C) Carl Friedrich Gauss

D) Leonhard Euler

Answer · why

C) Carl Friedrich Gauss

Von Zach and Olbers found Ceres near his predicted spot on the last day of 1801.