The Dawn mission journeys to the center of the main asteroid belt to orbit and explore the
two most massive main belt asteroids, Vesta and Ceres. Dawn aims to increase our …

Anhydrous pyroxene-rich interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) have been proposed as
surface analogs for about two-thirds of all C-complex asteroids. However, this suggestion …

Igneous processes were quite widespread in the small bodies of the Solar System (SBSS)
and were initially fueled by short-lived radioisotopes, the proto-Sun, impact heating, and …

More than 200 years after its discovery, asteroid (4) Vesta is thought to be the parent body
for the howardite, eucrite and diogenite (HED) meteorites. The Dawn spacecraft spent∼ 14 …

Collision and disruption processes of protoplanetary bodies in the early Solar System are
key to understanding the genesis of diverse types of main-belt asteroids. Mesosiderites are …

Evidence from iron meteorites indicates that a large number of differentiated planetesimals
formed early in Solar System history. These bodies should have had well-developed olivine …

Differentiated asteroids are rare in the main asteroid belt despite evidence for∼ 100 distinct
differentiated bodies in the meteorite record. We have sought to understand why so few …

The asteroid 4 Vesta was recently found to have two large impact craters near its south pole,
exposing subsurface material. Modelling suggested that surface material in the northern …

NASA's Dawn mission was launched in September 2007 and orbited asteroids Vesta
(2011− 2012) and Ceres (2015–2018). Vesta shows surface dark units that have been …

NASA's Dawn spacecraft orbited Vesta for approximately one year, collecting thousands of
hyperspectral images of its surface. The mission revealed that Vesta's surface shows the …