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Although olivine was expected to occur within the deep, south-pole basins of asteroid Vesta, which are thought to be excavated mantle rocks, spectral data from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft show that it instead occurs as near-surface materials in Vesta’s northern hemisphere. Between July 2011 and September 2012, NASA's Dawn spacecraft was in orbit around the asteroid Vesta. In this paper, Dawn's Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIR) team presents a surprising finding — the signature of olivine on the asteroid's surface. Olivine is a major component of the mantle of differentiated bodies, including Earth. Vesta is a large asteroid, large enough to have differentiated into an Earth-like layered structure and the expectation was that olivine would be found within Vesta's deep, south-pole basins, thought to be excavated mantle rocks. Yet the spectroscopic data reveal olivine-rich material close to the surface in the northern hemisphere. An understanding of the differentiation processes that have occurred on Vesta will be invaluable as a window on the primordial Solar System, but these latest findings show that Vesta's evolutionary history is more complicated than was thought. Olivine is a major component of the mantle of differentiated bodies, including Earth. Howardite, eucrite and diogenite (HED) meteorites represent regolith, basaltic-crust, lower-crust and possibly ultramafic-mantle samples of asteroid Vesta, which is the lone surviving, large, differentiated, basaltic rocky protoplanet in the Solar System1. Only a few of these meteorites, the orthopyroxene-rich diogenites, contain olivine, typically with a concentration of less than 25 per cent by volume2. Olivine was tentatively identified on Vesta3,4, on the basis of spectral and colour data, but other observations did not confirm its presence5. Here we report that olivine is indeed present locally on Vesta’s surface but that, unexpectedly, it has not been found within the deep, south-pole basins, which are thought to be excavated mantle rocks6,7,8. Instead, it occurs as near-surface materials in the northern hemisphere. Unlike the meteorites, the olivine-rich (more than 50 per cent by volume) material is not associated with diogenite but seems to be mixed with howardite, the most common7,9 surface material. Olivine is exposed in crater walls and in ejecta scattered diffusely over a broad area. The size of the olivine exposures and the absence of associated diogenite favour a mantle source, but the exposures are located far from the deep impact basins. The amount and distribution of observed olivine-rich material suggest a complex evolutionary history for Vesta.

Three Indian achondrites, viz., Bholghati howardite, Lohawat howardite and Pipliya Kalan eucrite and two other achondrites, viz., Bereba eucrite and Johnstown diogenite are studied for their petrography and mineral chemistry. All these achondrites are derived from the HED parent body. Both Bholghati and Lohawat howardites are polymict breccias and contain pieces of eucrites and diaogenites (lithic clasts), pyroxene and minor olivine as mineral clasts, and small proportion of ilmenite and pure iron metal. Eucrite clasts are noncumulate basaltic in nature, whereas diogenite clasts are mostly composed of orthopyroxene with minor clinopyroxene and anorthite. Both howardite samples contain orthopyroxene, pigeonite and augite. Notable characteristics observed in Lohawat howardite include crystallization of orthoenstatite first at a high-temperature followed by ferrosilite, pigeonite olivine and augite from a basaltic melt. Piplia Kalan eucrite is noncumulate, unbrecciated and basaltic in nature and display ophitic/sub-ophitic or hypidiomorphic textures. It contains ~60% pyroxenes (clinoenstatite and pigeonite) and ~40% plagioclase feldspars (bytownite to anorthite). The observed mineralogy in the Piplia Kalan eucrite suggests its crystallization from a high-temperature basaltic melt crystallized at low pressure. Two other achondrite samples, viz., Bereba eucrite and Johnstown diogenite are also studied. The Bereba eucrite shows cumulate nature which is probably formed by small-degree melts of ilmenite-bearing gabbro, whereas the Johnstown diogenite crystallized from a slow cooling of a Ca-poor basaltic melt derived from cumulates formed from the magma ocean, similar to the origin of the noncumulate eucrites.

Diogenite meteorites are thought to represent mantle rocks that formed as cumulates in magma chambers on 4 Vesta or a similar differentiated asteroid. Microstructural analysis of olivine grains from a diogenite meteorite show that the preferred orientation of their crystal lattice was formed through plastic deformation, indicating dynamic, planet-like processes in its parent body.

The NASA Dawn Mission will determine the surface composition of 4 Vesta and 1 Ceres, providing constraints on their formation and thermal evolution. The payload includes a Gamma Ray and Neutron Detector (GRaND), which will map the surface elemental composition at regional spatial scales. Target elements include the constituents of silicate and oxide minerals, ices, and the products of volcanic exhalation and aqueous alteration. At Vesta, GRaND will map the mixing ratio of end-members of the howardite, diogenite, and eucrite (HED) meteorites, determine relative proportions of plagioclase and mafic minerals, and search for compositions not well sampled by the meteorite collection. The large south polar impact basin may provide an opportunity to determine the composition of Vesta’s mantle and lower crust. At Ceres, GRaND will provide chemical information needed to test different models of Ceres’ origin and thermal and aqueous evolution. GRaND is also sensitive to hydrogen layering and can determine the equivalent H2O/OH content of near-surface hydrous minerals as well as the depth and water abundance of an ice table, which may provide information about the state of water in the interior of Ceres. Here, we document the design and performance of GRaND with sufficient detail to interpret flight data archived in the Planetary Data System, including two new sensor designs: an array of CdZnTe semiconductors for gamma ray spectroscopy, and a loaded-plastic phosphor sandwich for neutron spectroscopy. An overview of operations and a description of data acquired from launch up to Vesta approach is provided, including annealing of the CdZnTe sensors to remove radiation damage accrued during cruise. The instrument is calibrated using data acquired on the ground and in flight during a close flyby of Mars. Results of Mars flyby show that GRaND has ample sensitivity to meet science objectives at Vesta and Ceres. Strategies for data analysis are described and prospective results for Vesta are presented for different operational scenarios and compositional models.

Howardite-eucrite-diogenite (HED) meteorites, thought to be derived from 4 Vesta, provide the best sampling available for any differentiated asteroid. However, deviations in oxygen isotopic composition from a common mass-fractionation line suggest that a few eucrite-like meteorites are from other bodies, or that Vesta was not completely homogenized during differentiation. The petrology and geochemistry of HEDs provide insights into igneous processes that produced a crust composed of basalts, gabbros, and ultramafic cumulate rocks. Although most HED magmas were fractionated, it is unresolved whether some eucrites may have been primary melts. The geochemistry of HEDs indicates that bulk Vesta is depleted in volatile elements and is relatively reduced, but has chondritic refractory element abundances. The compositions of HEDs may favor a magma ocean model, but inconsistencies remain. Geochronology indicates that Vesta accreted and differentiated within the first several million years of solar system history, that magmatism continued over a span of ∼10 Myr, and that its thermal history extended for perhaps 100 Myr. The protracted cooling history is probably responsible for thermal metamorphism of most HEDs. Impact chronology indicates that Vesta experienced many significant collisions, including during the late heavy bombardment. The age of the huge south pole crater is controversial, but it probably ejected Vestoids and many HEDs. Continued impacts produced a regolith composed of eucrite and diogenite fragments containing only minor exotic materials. HED meteorites serve as ground truth for orbital spectroscopic and chemical analyses by the Dawn spacecraft, and their properties are critical for instrument calibration and interpretation of Vesta’s geologic history.

THE achondrite meteorites known as eucrites and diogenites are thought to be igneous rocks derived from the crust and mantle, respectively, of a common parent planet or asteroid1,2. Several eucrites have been dated at 4.5–4.6 Gyr by the Rb–Sr method4–6, and a Rb–Sr age of 4.45±0.18 Gyr (λ = 1.42x 10−11yr−1) has been reported3 for three diogenites. From these data, one cannot judge whether diogenites and eucrites are the same age. Here we present precise Rb–Sr data for two diogenites (Tatahouine and Johnstown) that yield an age of 4.394 ±0.011 Gyr—significantly younger than our age of 4.52 ±0.15 Gyr for the Juvinas eucrite. The low initial 87Sr/86Sr ratio of these diogenites, and their rare-earth element abundance patterns, are inconsistent with the interpretation that the young ages reflect secondary metamorphism. We suggest that our data raise doubts about a genetically close relationship between eucrites and these diogenites, and that there exist groups of diogenites that are genetically distinct from one another. Our results also suggest that igneous activity in the assumed parent body continued for about one hundred million years after its formation 4.52 Gyr ago. The parent body may thus have had a complicated evolutionary history.

The Yamato diogenite, Y-74013, shows a high degree of textural equilibrium with the apparent crystallization sequence: troilite and metal → orthopyroxene → plagioclase. The position of the large chromite crystals in this sequence is unclear. Except chromite, all other minerals have composition similar to common orthopyroxene achondrites. The chromite is more magnesian than in common diogenites, strongly zoned and, on the whole, intermediate in composition between chromites of diogenites and pallasites. Texture, mineral composition data and an equilibrium thermodynamic analysis of the mineral association strongly indicate that the chromite crystallized earlier than the silicates at a much higher temperature (possibly above 1100°C) and rapidly grew in a medium which was progressively enriched in Mg, Al and Ti. But the chromite failed to reach chemical equilibrium, even at its outermost rim, with the orthopyroxene. The calculated equilibrium log fO2 of the Yamato diogenite, −20·21 to −11·08 for temperatures between 880°C and 1500°C is well within the normal oxygen fugacity range of pyroxene achondrites.

The mineralogical, textural and compositional characteristics of the eucrite meteorites suggest that they are the products of igneous processes. Howardites are polymict breccias containing a variety of fragments, the bulk of which are thought to have crystallised from eucrite and eucrite-related melts. Diogenites are orthopyroxene-rich stones which may represent cumulates from eucrite-related melts. I relate here experimentally determined phase equilibria to the igneous processes which produced the eucrites and their associates.