NASA's Dawn spacecraft captures clearest-ever image of “dwarf planet” Ceres

boing
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Both are official categories. Plutoid is another name for the ice dwarfs in the Kuiper belt out beyond Neptune. Ceres on the other hand is from the asteroid belt, and the only thing there large enough to have formed round, although some think Vesta might also qualify. So it’s the one case of a dwarf planet that isn’t a plutoid, though personally, I think “largest asteroid” is still the clearest way to describe it.

Personally I feel the reclassification of Pluto as part of a belt rather than a planet is part of appreciating just how much more is out there, and doesn’t need to mean neglect.

So as far as mnemonics go, for us people who like all round things I’d like to offer one I made a little while ago: My Very Excellent Mother Can Just Serve Us Nachos Or Perhaps Hot Quick Meals Eaten Slowly. For Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Orcus, Pluto, Haumea, Quaoar, Makemake, Eris, and Sedna. But if it isn’t obsolete yet, it will be soon.

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For those who can’t wait to get closer: http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/ceres.png

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Doesn’t that kind of spoil the whole point of a mnemonic?

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Why…? Grains make you fat and sick. If you need breakfast, omelette, cooked in lard with a side of as much bacon as you can eat is far healthier.

Stick what you want in the omelette, I usually opt for peppers, tomatoes, spring onion and goats cheese.

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