4 Vesta

Yes, NASA's Dawn spacecraft orbited Vesta from July 2011 to September 2012, capturing detailed images and compositional data of the asteroid's surface. Dawn then traveled to the dwarf planet Ceres, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit two different extraterrestrial bodies. The mission revealed Vesta's massive Rheasilvia impact crater near its south pole.

4 Vesta has a mean diameter of approximately 525 kilometers, making it the second-most massive body in the main asteroid belt after Ceres. It accounts for roughly 9% of the total mass of the asteroid belt. Vesta is large enough to have a differentiated internal structure with a crust, mantle, and iron core.

Yes, a class of meteorites known as HED meteorites (howardites, eucrites, and diogenites) are believed to originate from Vesta, as their spectral signatures match the asteroid's surface composition. The massive impact that created Vesta's Rheasilvia crater ejected debris that eventually reached Earth. Over a thousand HED meteorites have been cataloged.

Vesta was discovered on March 29, 1807, by German astronomer Heinrich Olbers. It was the fourth asteroid ever identified, following Ceres (1801), Pallas (1802), and Juno (1804). Vesta is occasionally bright enough to be visible to the naked eye from Earth under dark skies, which is unusual for an asteroid.