Anew slot computer simulation suggests that dwarf planet Ceres may have been flung by the gravity of gas giant Jupiter toward the sun during the volatile era of planet formation 4.5 billion years ago. There has always been something out of place about Ceres.
At 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) wide, Ceres is by far the largest body in the asteroid belt, the region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter where space rocks (most of them only tens or hundreds of meters in size and oddly shaped) gatherRound like a planet, Ceres also contains some odd chemical compounds,
such as ammonia, that are not present in its neighbors. Ceres' strange nature has long led scientists to believe that the dwarf planet is an intruder in the asteroid belt. A new simulation led by researchers from Sao Paulo State University in Brazil has now revealed a mechanism that may have displaced Ceres from its original birthplace in the distant past.
