SOLAR SYSTEM

Detailed explanation-1: -Answer and Explanation: Ceres is not considered a planet because it only meets two of the three criteria for planetary status. The criteria are that it must orbit the sun, have a round shape due to its mass and gravity, and clear other objects from its orbit.

Detailed explanation-2: -Failing to meet these new criteria, Pluto was demoted from being a classical planet to a dwarf planet – amid some controversy. Ceres, however, was large enough to be rounded by its own gravity and was, therefore, officially upgraded from asteroid to dwarf planet – the only one inside Neptune’s orbit.

Detailed explanation-3: -In 2006, the International Astronomical Union decided Ceres was big enough to be designated a dwarf planet. Ceres became the first-ever dwarf planet to be orbited by a spacecraft, from 2015 to 2018, when NASA’s Dawn mission peered down at Ceres and unlocked some of its mysteries.

Detailed explanation-4: -Among the wide expanses of the solar system lives Ceres, which has the distinction of being both the smallest known dwarf planet and the largest object in the asteroid belt.