Short answers, pulled from the story.
HED stands for howardite-eucrite-diogenite, naming the three distinct rock types that make up this group of achondrite meteorites. All three types are thought to have originated from the crust of the asteroid Vesta.
HED meteorites are thought to have originated from the crust of the asteroid Vesta. A massive impact on Vesta's southern hemisphere ejected debris that eventually made its way to Earth via the 3:1 Kirkwood gap and near-Earth asteroid orbits.
HED meteorites crystallized between 4.43 and 4.55 billion years ago, as determined by radioisotope ratios. This places their formation in the very early history of the solar system.
HED meteorites account for about 5% of all observed meteorite falls and make up roughly 60% of all achondrites. This makes them by far the dominant type of achondrite found on Earth.
Cosmic ray exposure measurements indicate that most HED meteorites spent between about 6 million and 73 million years in space before striking Earth. They likely came from several distinct impact events on near-Earth asteroids derived from Vesta.
V-type near-Earth asteroids linked to the HED meteorite source include 3551 Verenia, 3908 Nyx, and 4055 Magellan. These bodies are thought to be fragments of Vesta that were perturbed into near-Earth orbits through the 3:1 Kirkwood gap.