Ceres is a very large asteroid circling the sun between Mars and Jupiter, inside the main asteroid belt. NASA JPL does not treat Ceres as potentially hazardous, because its orbit never carries it near Earth.
One lap around the sun takes Ceres 1,680 days (4.6 years). Over that circuit it swings between 2.55 AU and 2.99 AU from the sun, travelling at an average of 17.92 km/s. At 939.4 kilometers across, Ceres is roughly the size of the U.S. state of Alaska.
Ceres has been watched long enough to time its spin: one full turn on its axis takes 9.07 hours.
Its spectral type — G on the Tholen scale, C on SMASSII — suggests Ceres holds water, iron, nickel, cobalt, nitrogen, and ammonia.
At their nearest, the orbits of Ceres and Earth stay 1.58 AU apart. That is a comfortable margin, and it holds at every point in the orbit.
Orbital simulations run by NASA JPL's CNEOS turn up no close approaches to Earth.
The orbit of Ceres is pinned down by sightings going back to Jan. 5, 1995, the most recent officially logged on Jan. 28, 2021. The IAU Minor Planet Center holds 1,075 observations behind that solution.
A ◯ pink circle marks where Ceres sits. It may fall outside your current field of view — use the controls below to change the position, location and time.