Water on terrestrial planets of the Solar System Water on terrestrial planets of the Solar System The origin and development of water on terrestrial planets, Venus, Earth, Mars, and the closely related Earth's Moon, varies with each planetary body, with the exact origins remaining unclear. Additionally, the terrestrial dwarf planet, Ceres is known to have water ice on its surface. A significant amount of surface hydrogen has been observed globally by the Mars Odyssey GRS. Stoichiometrically estimated water mass fractions indicate that—when free of carbon dioxide—the near surface at the poles consists almost entirely of water covered by a thin veneer of fine material. This is reinforced by
Minor planet more are discovered each month. The Minor Planet Center has documented over 188 million observations and 757,626 minor planets, of which 516,386 have orbits known well enough to be assigned permanent official numbers. Of these, 21,264 have official names. , the lowest-numbered unnamed minor planet is , and the highest-numbered named minor planet is 495759 Jandesselberger. There are various broad minor-planet populations: All astronomical bodies in the Solar System need a distinct designation. The naming of minor planets runs through a three-step process. First, a provisional designation is given upon discovery—because the object still may turn out to be a