English: New observations of Ceres, the largest known asteroid, have revealed that the object may be a "mini-planet," and may contain large amounts of pure water ice beneath its surface.
The observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope also show that Ceres shares characteristics of the rocky, terrestrial planets like Earth. Ceres' shape is almost round like Earth's, suggesting that the asteroid may have a rocky inner core and a thin, dusty outer crust.
Hubble studied Ceres for a full nine-hour rotational period, the most complete view of the celestial body to date.
NASA, ESA, J.-Y. Li (University of Maryland) and G. Bacon (STScI)
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This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA and ESA. NASA Hubble material (and ESA Hubble material prior to 2009) is copyright-free and may be freely used as in the public domain without fee, on the condition that only NASA, STScI, and/or ESA is credited as the source of the material. This license does not apply if ESA material created after 2008 or source material from other organizations is in use.