This technology, LiDAR allows the lasers to measure the distance to earth's surface and it is useful in those survey areas where the ground is quite thicker.
The Dawn orbited Vesta for nearly a year, before heading to the dwarf planet Ceres about 3.1 billion miles (4.9 billion kilometers) away, according to Space.com.
Deep learning algorithms allowed the study to discover an unknown ancestor of humans who possibly interbred with modern humans possibly tens of thousands of years ago.