# Solar System, technical/Ceres

Ceres appears to be a rocky-object and an astronomical object.

## Notation

Notation: let the symbol Def. indicate that a definition is following.
Notation: let the symbols between [ and ] be replacement for that portion of a quoted text.
Notation: let the symbol ... indicate unneeded portion of a quoted text.
Sometimes these are combined as [...] to indicate that text has been replaced by ....

## Universals

Def. a "characteristic or property that particular things have in common" is called a universal.
"When we examine common words, we find that, broadly speaking, proper names stand for particulars, while other substantives, adjectives, prepositions, and verbs stand for universals."
Such words as "entity", "object", "thing", and perhaps "body", words "connoting universal properties, ... constitute the very highest genus or "summum genus"" of a classification of universals. To propose a definition for say a plant whose flowers open at dawn on a warm day to be pollinated during the day time using the word "thing", "entity", "object", or "body" seems too general and is.
To help with definitions, their meanings and intents, there is the learning resource theory of definition.

## Proof of concept

Def. a “short and/or incomplete realization of a certain method or idea to demonstrate its feasibility" is called a proof of concept.
Def. evidence that demonstrates that a concept is possible is called proof of concept.
The proof-of-concept structure consists of
* background,
* procedures,
* findings, and
* interpretation.

## Control group

The findings demonstrate a statistically systematic change from the status quo or the control group.
“In the design of experiments, treatments [or special properties or characteristics] are applied to [or observed in] experimental units in the treatment group(s). In comparative experiments, members of the complementary group, the control group [such as composed of Lewis rats, imaged at right], receive either no treatment or a standard treatment."

## Planetary science

The Gamma Ray and Neutron Detector (GRaND) onboard the Dawn spacecraft "is based on similar instruments flown on the Lunar Prospector and Mars Odyssey space missions. It will be used to measure the abundances of the major rock-forming elements (oxygen, magnesium, aluminium, silicon, calcium, titanium, and iron) on Vesta and Ceres, as well as potassium, thorium, uranium, and water (inferred from hydrogen content)."

## Theoretical planetary astronomy

Def. "a celestial body that
(a) is in orbit around the Sun,
(b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape,
(c) has not cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit, and
(d) is not a satellite" is called a dwarf planet.
"Ceres ... is the smallest identified dwarf planet in the solar system".

## Asteroid belt

"Ceres ... is ... the only [dwarf planet] in the asteroid belt."

## History

“When Ceres has an opposition near the perihelion, it can reach a visual magnitude of +6.7. This is generally regarded as too dim to be seen with the naked eye, but under exceptional viewing conditions a very sharp-sighted person may be able to see this dwarf planet.”