Overheard: Ceres, Ceres-ously

Astronomy 210, Spring Semester 2011
Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA

(Overheard during a presentation on dwarf planets, and the 2006 International Astronomical Union classification of solar system bodies.)

Instructor: "Consider Ceres, which is now just the largest asteroid. But after it was first discovered in 1801, people called it a planet."

Student 1: "Where did that name come from?"

Instructor: "The Greek goddess of the grain harvest. You know, like where the word, 'cereal' comes from."

(Beat.)

Student 2: "Seriously?"

Instructor: "Ceres-ously."