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Ceres

Ceres was the first asteroid discovered. It was discovered in January 1801 by Piazzi. As well as being the first asteroid discovered, Ceres is also the largest asteroid, with a diameter of 1023 kilometres (it is almost spheroidal in shape). It is located in the centre of the main asteroid belt at a distance of 2.77 astronomical units from the Sun. With an albedo of 5.7 per cent, it is a C-class asteroid (i.e. carbonaceous). It has a rotation period of 9.08 hours and a mean density of 2.3 g / cm3. It has a mass of 30 per cent of the entire mass of the asteroid belt.