How does the dwarf planet, Ceres, compare in size to the Earths Moon?
• Use a pencil and ruler to make two dots on a 12-inch square piece of poster board (card stock will work). Make one dot in the center of the poster board piece, which will be 6 inches from the edges. Make the second dot 3 inches from the first dot. • Using a drawing compass, draw a circle with a 6-inch radius. The center of this circle will be the dot in the center of the poster board. • Use the pencil and ruler to draw a line across the paper through the center dot. Label the line Moon- 2,200 miles (3,520 km). • Repeat steps 2 and 3 using the second dot as the center of a circle with a 1 ½ -inch radius. Label the line Ceres, 600 miles (950 km). This celestial body is big, but not as big as the Earth’s moon, which has a diameter of about 2,200 miles (3,520 km). In this activity, the scale used for the models is 1 inch (2.5 cm) = 183 miles (293 km). • Compare the size of the two circles. Notice how much smaller Ceres is in comparision to the Earth’s Moon, which is smaller than Earth. J
