what is the name of the largest known asteroid?
<answer> Ceres is the name of the largest known asteroid. <context> List of exceptional asteroids. Ceres is the largest and most massive asteroid and the only one that is a dwarf planet. Vesta is the brightest and second-most-massive asteroid. It suffered a crust-penetrating impact approximately one billion years ago. The following is a collection of lists of exceptional asteroids in the Solar System. For the purposes of this article asteroid means minor planet up to the orbit of Jupiter, which includes the dwarf planet Ceres. For a complete list of minor planets in numerical order, see List of minor planets. Asteroids are given a unique sequential identifying number once their orbit is precisely determined. Prior to this, they are known only by their systematic name or provisional designation, such as 1950