Invaders from Vesta!

I did two related things yesterday: I wrote about the asteroid Vesta, and I went to the Denver Gem and Mineral show.

How are those tied together? Glad you asked.

In the last paragraph of the Vesta post, I said we have samples of Vesta that fell as meteorites. As it happens, they had a sample of one of those rocks at the show! Here it is:

Other such meteorites have been found on Earth as well, and are generally referred to as HEDs, short for Howardite/Eucrite/Diogenite — the three main types of these rocks.

So how do we know these meteorites were once part of Vesta? Read More