Stars on Mars Hill: Dr. Tim Titus

Every month Lowell Observatory presents a free lecture by a visiting astronomer. This month, Dr. Tim Titus (USGS) will present his talk "2015: Year of the Dwarf Planets - Getting Serious About Ceres". This presentation will focus on the first of these two encounters ? Dawn at Ceres. The dwarf planet Ceres was discovered in 1801 and was initially considered to be the missing planet between Mars and Jupiter. Fifty years later, it was declassified as a planet when it was obvious that Ceres was just the largest of many objects that occupied the space between Mars and Jupiter, an area of the solar system that we now call the Main Asteroid Belt. Within a few months, the Dawn spacecraft will enter orbit around Ceres. This presentation will cover the history of Ceres? discovery, exploration, and predictions for what the Dawn spacecraft might discover.