The most viable places on Ceres
All 149 named places on Ceres, scored one coordinate at a time on sunlight, water, radiation, temperature, ground and access — then ranked. Hanami Planum comes out first.
Ceres as a whole rates 43.8/100 to settle, and that single number is the same for every square metre of it. It is also the wrong number for a mission, because sunlight, water, radiation dose and the ground itself all change with where you stand. The ranking below re-asks the question at each of 149 catalogued coordinates and reports the difference from the median site — so a score of 43.8 here means “typical for Ceres”, not “good”.
Water on Ceres: Dawn detected ice in permanently shadowed polar craters and near-surface ice over much of the body — the most accessible water of any body in the inner system after the Moon.
1Hanami PlanumPlanum15° N, 130° W555 km40.9-2.9
Sunlight: 97% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
2Vendimia PlanitiaPlanitia23° N, 135° E750 km41.1-2.7
Sunlight: 92% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
3Homowo RegioRegio19° N, 110° W360 km41.8-2
Sunlight: 94% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
4Pasola FaculaFacula19° N, 121° W2.9 km42.1-1.7
Sunlight: 94% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
5Cerealia FaculaFacula20° N, 120° W14 km42.1-1.7
Sunlight: 94% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
6Vinalia FaculaeFacula20° N, 118° W19 km42.1-1.7
Sunlight: 94% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
7XeviosoCrater1° N, 49° W8.5 km42.2-1.6
Sunlight: 100% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
8CacaguatCrater1° S, 144° E13.6 km42.2-1.6
Sunlight: 100% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
9BonsuCrater2° N, 93° E31 km42.3-1.5
Sunlight: 100% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
10KaitCrater2° S, 0° E0.4 km42.3-1.5
Sunlight: 100% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
11RongoCrater3° N, 11° W68 km42.3-1.5
Sunlight: 100% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
12RazekaCrater3° S, 62° E38.4 km42.3-1.5
Sunlight: 100% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
13ShakaemaCrater4° S, 34° E47 km42.3-1.5
Sunlight: 100% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
14KirnisCrater5° N, 96° W115 km42.3-1.5
Sunlight: 100% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
15HaulaniCrater6° N, 11° E34 km42.3-1.5
Sunlight: 99% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
16NepenCrater6° N, 139° W26.4 km42.3-1.5
Sunlight: 99% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
17LociyoCrater7° S, 131° W37.8 km42.3-1.5
Sunlight: 99% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
18TahuCrater7° S, 45° E25 km42.3-1.5
Sunlight: 99% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
19AzaccaCrater7° S, 142° W49.9 km42.3-1.5
Sunlight: 99% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
20RaoCrater8° N, 119° E12 km42.3-1.5
Sunlight: 99% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
21KumitogaCrater10° S, 179° E96 km42.4-1.4
Sunlight: 98% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
22InsitorCrater11° S, 125° E26 km42.4-1.4
Sunlight: 98% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
23KerwanCrater11° S, 124° E280 km42.4-1.4
Sunlight: 98% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
24HenebCrater11° N, 169° W39 km42.4-1.4
Sunlight: 98% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
25EmeshCrater11° N, 158° E20 km42.4-1.4
Sunlight: 98% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
26HomshukCrater11° N, 94° E70 km42.4-1.4
Sunlight: 98% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
27AnuraCrater14° S, 12° E37 km42.5-1.3
Sunlight: 97% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
28InamahariCrater14° N, 89° E68 km42.5-1.3
Sunlight: 97% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
29PiukuCrater15° S, 37° E31 km42.5-1.3
Sunlight: 96% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
30HatipowaCrater16° S, 2° W40 km42.6-1.2
Sunlight: 96% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
31BegbalelCrater18° N, 35° W102 km42.6-1.2
Sunlight: 95% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
32NawishCrater18° N, 166° W77 km42.6-1.2
Sunlight: 95% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
33KokopelliCrater18° N, 125° E34 km42.6-1.2
Sunlight: 95% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
34CenteotlCrater19° N, 141° E6 km42.7-1.1
Sunlight: 95% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
35KondosCrater19° S, 17° E44 km42.7-1.1
Sunlight: 94% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
36OccatorCrater20° N, 121° W92 km42.7-1.1
Sunlight: 94% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
37TafakulaCrater20° S, 89° E34 km42.7-1.1
Sunlight: 94% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
38Dalien TholusTholus4° N, 5° E20 km42.8-1
Sunlight: 100% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Ground: Mixed ground — a rim, a floor and slopes between them
39ConsusCrater21° S, 160° W64 km42.8-1
Sunlight: 94% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
40BraciacaCrater23° S, 84° E8 km42.9-0.9
Sunlight: 92% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Ceres gets · Water: Outside the ice-bearing latitudes
What this ranking cannot see
Elevation. Every score above comes from a latitude, a longitude and a feature class — never from a terrain model — so slope, local shadowing and the polar peaks of eternal light are invisible to it. That last one matters: on a world tilted barely a degree, a ridge top near the pole can catch sunlight almost continuously while a crater floor a few kilometres away has not seen the Sun in two billion years. This model scores the average surface at a latitude, so it reads poles as dark and ranks them accordingly. Where a real mission targets a pole, that is usually the reason — and the reason to read this as one input, not a verdict.