With New Horizon's look at Pluto/Charon coming up soon as well, we seem to be at an era of "small airless body" discoveries. We're bound to be in for some surprises.
Now see? That's where text fails us! I cannot tell if you are typing that with a British accent which, of course, would make a world of difference as to the meaning of that phrase.
Ceres was discovered on January 1, 1801, the first day of the 19th Century by a priest/astronomer in Sicily. She is named for the Ceres, the goddess of grain and protector goddess of Sicily. Ceres was the first asteroid discovered, and was originally given the status of planet, as was Vesta, later. But as more and more asteroids were discovered, like Pluto in the 21st Century, she was demoted. William Herschel suggested the designation asteroid and it stuck.
The rediscovery of Ceres after it was lost in the glare of the sun, using an analysis by Gauss help make the German’s reputation among European mathematicians, and established the method of least squares as the most used non-trivial method in statistics.