A team of scientists has created the first geologic and tectonic map of the asteroid Vesta, revealing high-definition details of the asteroid's surface features.

The mapping was completed using photos snapped by NASA's Dawn Spacecraft that orbited Vesta from June 2011 and September 2012.

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The geological mapping campaign of Vesta, a large asteroid, was carried out by his team of 14 scientists and took some two and a half years to finish, said Team leader David Williams from School of Earth and Space Exploration department of the Arizona State University.

Williams added that by using the new map, they can now freely construct a geological time scale of Vesta for comparison with other planets and moons.

Geological mapping is a process used to acquire the geological history of an extraterrestrial object from scientific analyses of its surface topography, color, morphology and brightness. Scientists begin by finding which feature disturbs or interrupts other features, thereby placing them in a relative chronology of events.

The team found it quite difficult to determine the relative time sequence of events on Vesta, however. The samples of the asteroid scientists have dn't show a clear formation age that can be connected to Vesta's specific features.

By applying two different models to estimate surface ages, scientists used techniques with crater statistics to date Vesta's surface.

They found out that Vesta's geological timescale is determined by the sequence of large impact events, primarily impacts that blew-up the Veneneia and Rheasilvia craters in the asteroid's early history, as well as the Marcia impact in its late history.

The oldest surviving crust on the large asteroid predates the Veneneia impact, which has an age ranging from 2.1 billion years to 3.7 billion years. Scientists also concluded the Rheasilvia impact likely has an age of around 1 billion years to 3.5 billion years.

"This mapping was crucial for getting a better understanding of Vesta's geological history, as well as providing context for the compositional information that we received from other instruments on the spacecraft," said Carol Raymond from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

TagsVesta, Asteroid Vesta, asteroids, NASA, Dawn Spacecraft, School of Earth and Space Exploration