Imagine having an amazing discovery: A new planet! The world is your oyster! You get a say in what the new planet’s name is. You get invited to all the best parties, and your name is world-renowned. But then, a year later, another planet is discovered. And another, and another… and suddenly your planet isn’t as important anymore.
In fact, your planet gets demoted.
In five years, your planet has become an asteroid.
Aster…what? Oh, you thought I was talking about Pluto?
No, no, no. This whole “demoting a beloved planet” has happened before. Two hundred years ago, as a matter of fact. We have just forgotten, that’s all.
Ceres was discovered on January 1st, 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi, and the world was surprised that another whole planet could be between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter- even though it had been postulated that one could be there as early as 1772. Though small (even today, she is the smallest dwarf planet), Ceres contains about one third the mass of the entire asteroid belt, and she counts as both an asteroid and a dwarf planet.
Ceres, like Uranus, went through several name changes. Piazzi suggested Cerere Ferdinandea: The first half, Cerere, is Italian for Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain (And where we get the word “cereal” from). But the second half was for King Ferdinand of Italy. So while most of the world called her Ceres, people in Italy called her Ferdinandea, Greeks called her Demeter (the Greek name for the grain goddess) and the Germans called her Hera, just to be different.
The astrological symbol for Ceres is a sickle- either a backwards or a forewards “C” with a “+” underneath. Rather like Venus which is an “O” with a “+” underneath.
But soon Pallas (or Pallas Athena) was discovered. Then Juno, and Vesta. For nearly 50 years, these four asteroids were on the books as planets. But with the discovery of more and more asteroids, soon it was obvious that we needed a new designation for the objects between Mars and Jupiter, and the term “asteroid” was used.
In 2005 Ceres got her “planet” status back. She is the only solar system object classified as both an asteroid and a dwarf planet, and the only non-trans Neptunian dwarf planet, also!
She may not be easy to find, but a seasoned observer can spot her naked-eye under ideal conditions. The rest of us need a star chart and at least a pair of binoculars.
The cache is a small peanut butter jar with cammo tape.
Originally I thought this science series would be a power trail, but things being the way things are, these astronomy-themed caches are not very power-trail-ish. Instead, the first half can be found along Lake George’s Forest Rd 271. This is a 4x4 trail; please do not attempt with a regular car! Terrain and difficulty ratings are for people who drive to the cache locations; if you hike or mountain bike, of course the D/Ts will be different.
There will be a mixture of regular sized and small caches to start. We have a lot of peanut-butter jars to repurpose. The key is to have fun! And stay safe!
Peace out!
Congrats, Sportslane! FTF on this cache!