DOES Pluto have a wayward cousin lurking in the inner solar system? The dwarf planet Ceres – and other icy chunks – may have been born in the same realm as Pluto, but travelled all the way to the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. If so, it would be further evidence that a massive upheaval rearranged the early solar system.
At 950 kilometres in diameter, Ceres is by far the largest object in the asteroid belt. And that’s not the only reason it doesn’t quite fit in with many of its companions, according to William McKinnon of Washington…
