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The IAU has adopted two themes for naming surface features on Ceres: agricultural deities for craters and agricultural festivals for everything else.
Contents
As of September 2016, the IAU has approved names for 111 geological features on Ceres: craters, montes, catenae, rupēs, plana, tholi, planitiae, fossae and sulci.
Piazzi, named after Giuseppe Piazzi, the discoverer of Ceres, is a dark region southwest of Dantu crater in ground-based images that was named before Dawn arrived at Ceres.
Craters
Ceres is saturated with impact craters. Many have a central pit or bright spot.
In the first batch of 17 names approved by the IAU, craters north of 20° north latitude had names beginning with A–G (with Asari being the furthest north), those between 20° north and south latitude beginning with H–R, and those further south beginning with S–Z (with Zadeni being the furthest south).
Montes
a^ Name changed from Ysolo Mons to Yamor Mons on 7 December 2016Catenae
b^ Name changed from Samhain Catena (singular) to Samhain Catenae (plural) and boundary expanded from 168 kmPlana
c^ Name changed from Erntedank Planum to Hanami PlanumPlanitiae
The three planitiae may be large and largely obliterated craters.