colorful images are of thin slices of meteorites viewed through
a Part of the group classified as HED meteorites for their
mineral content (Howardite, Eucrite, Diogenite), they likely to
Earth from 4 Vesta, the mainbelt asteroid currently being
explored by NASA's Why are they thought to be from Vesta?
Because the HED meteorites have visible and infrared spectra
that match the spectrum of The hypothesis of their origin on
Vesta is also consistent with data from Dawn's ongoing
observations. by impacts, the diogenites shown here would have
originated deep within the crust of Vesta. are also found in the
lower crust of planet Earth. A sample scale is indicated by the
white bars, each 2 millimeters long. Hap McSween (Univ.
Tennessee), A. Beck and T. McCoy (Smithsonian Inst.)