Dawn; the Vesta–HED connection; and the geologic context for eucrites,diogenites, and howardites |
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| Authors: | Harry Y. McSween Jr. Richard P. Binzel M. Cristina De Sanctis Eleonora Ammannito Thomas H. Prettyman Andrew W. Beck Vishnu Reddy Lucille Le Corre Michael J. Gaffey Thomas B. McCord Carol A. Raymond Christopher T. Russell the Dawn Science Team |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Planetary Geoscience Institute and Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, , Knoxville, Tennessee, 37996–1410 USA;2. Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, , Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02139 USA;3. Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, Istituto Nazionale de Astrofisica, , Rome, Italy;4. Planetary Science Institute, , Tucson, Arizona, 85719 USA;5. Department of Mineral Sciences, Smithsonian Institution, , Washington, District of Columbia, 20560–0112 USA;6. Max Planck Institut fur Sonnensystemforschung, , 37191 Katlenburg‐Lindau, Germany;7. Department of Space Studies, University of North Dakota, , Grand Forks, North Dakota, 58202 USA;8. Bear Fight Institute, , Winthrop, Washington, 98862 USA;9. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, , Pasadena, California, 91109 USA;10. Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, , Los Angeles, California, 90095–1567 USA |
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| Abstract: | The Dawn mission has provided new evidence strengthening the identification of asteroid Vesta as the parent body of the howardite, eucrite, and diogenite (HED) meteorites. The evidence includes Vesta's petrologic complexity, detailed spectroscopic characteristics, unique space weathering, diagnostic geochemical abundances and neutron absorption characteristics, chronology of surface units and impact history, occurrence of exogenous carbonaceous chondritic materials in the regolith, and dimensions of the core, all of which are consistent with HED observations and constraints. Global mapping of the distributions of HED lithologies by Dawn cameras and spectrometers provides the missing geologic context for these meteorites, thereby allowing tests of petrogenetic models and increasing their scientific value. |
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