The Meteorite Apprentice

Meteorites come in many different flavors. They are typically grouped together based on some common feature or parent body. One such group is known as the HED meteorites, an acronym derived from the names of the three types of achondrite meteorites that compose the group; the howardite, the eucrite, and the diogenite. This is a very well studied clan of meteorites. They are thought by most researchers to originate from the asteroid Vesta or the associated V-type asteroids known as the Vestoids. The connection between the HED meteorites and Vesta is largely based on remote spectral analysis. We don't have any "ground truth" sample of Vesta or the V-type asteroids. While the data for Vesta and the Vestoids being the parent asteroid(s) for the HED meteorites is very compelling, It's not without some unanswered questions that at least some researchers think places legitimate doubt on the current consensus of Vesta and the Vestoids being the parent body(s) for the HED meteorites.