Ceres, Vesta, and Pallas: Protoplanets, not asteroids
Abstract
Objects in our solar system are currently thought to have formed by condensation and accumulation from the gas and dust nebula, out of which the Sun first arose. Dust grains accreted to form objects of approximately one-kilometer in size, which in turn accreted to form objects of about 1000 kilometers in size. Some of these objects grew to become the planets, and formed a core, mantle, and crust layers through radioactive heating, which melted some or all of the material, and subsequent differentiation.The development of large planets caused gravity perturbations, rearranging the remaining debris and halting the accretion.