Space / 2017-09-01
New Names on Ceres
NASA's image library records New Names on Ceres.
Often, the names of features on planetary bodies are connected through a specific theme -- for example, many features on the Moon have been named after famous scientists. NASA's Dawn mission, together with the International Astronomical Union, established that craters on Ceres would be named for agricultural deities from all over the world, and oth
A CLOSER LOOK
Often, the names of features on planetary bodies are connected through a specific theme -- for example, many features on the Moon have been named after famous scientists. NASA's Dawn mission, together with the International Astronomical Union, established that craters on Ceres would be named for agricultural deities from all over the world, and other features would be named for agricultural festivals. Ceres itself was named after the Roman goddess of corn and harvests by its discoverer, Giuseppe Piazzi, who spotted it with his telescope in 1801. Since March 2015, Dawn has been orbiting Ceres and sending back many intriguing images and other data about its features. Using suggestions from the Dawn team, the IAU recently approved 25 new Ceres feature names tied to theme of agricultural deiti
Explore NASA's original image record for credits and available downloads.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
NASA Image and Video LibraryNew Names on CeresOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.