Giuseppe Piazzi is the discoverer of Ceres, today known as the largest member of the asteroid belt.

On January 1, 1801, Piazzi discovers a "stellar object" that moves against the background of stars.

At first he thinks it is a fixed star, but once he notices that it moves, he becomes convinced it is a planet, or as he calls it, "a new star".

In spite of his assumption that it is a planet, he takes the conservative route and announces it as a comet.

In a letter to astronomer Barnaba Oriani of [Milan] he makes his suspicions known in writing.

He is not able to observe it long enough as it was soon lost in the glare of the Sun.

Unable to compute its orbit with existing methods, the mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss will develop a new method of orbit calculation that will allow astronomers to locate it again.

After its orbit is better determined, it will be clear that Piazzi's assumption is correct and this object is not a comet but more like a small planet.

Coincidentally, it is also almost exactly where the Titius-Bode law predicted a planet would be.

Piazzi names it "Ceres Ferdinandea," after the Roman and Sicilian goddess of grain and King Ferdinand IV of Naples and Sicily.

The Ferdinandea part will later be dropped for political reasons.

Ceres turns out to be the first, and largest, of the asteroids existing within the asteroid belt.

Ceres is today called a dwarf planet.