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How large is Ceres compared with other asteroids?

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Illustration showing a massive asteroid above a city map with a dinosaur silhouette for scale, highlighting the asteroid's size compared to major urban areas. — Asteroid This rock would take out more than just a *T. rex*.

Ceres is the largest asteroid in the main asteroid belt. Its significance in terms of size and mass is substantial:1

Volume: Ceres has a diameter of approximately 940 km, making it the largest object in the asteroid belt.1
Mass: Ceres accounts for more than one-third of the total mass of the entire main asteroid belt. Its mass is roughly four times greater than that of the second and third largest asteroids, Pallas and Vesta, which each possess only about one-fourth the mass of Ceres.12
Comparison: The 10th largest asteroid has only about 1/60th the mass of Ceres.2

While Ceres is the largest asteroid, it is important to note that it was reclassified as a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union in 2006. Additionally, despite its size, it is not the brightest asteroid; that distinction belongs to Vesta, which has a much higher albedo.1