  The evolution of the Solar System can be schematically divided into three
different phases: the Solar Nebula, the Primordial Solar System and the Modern
Solar System. These three periods were characterized by very different
conditions, both from the point of view of the physical conditions and from
that of the processes there were acting through them. Across the Solar Nebula
phase, planetesimals and planetary embryos were forming and differentiating due
to the decay of short-lived radionuclides. At the same time, giant planets
formed their cores and accreted the nebular gas to reach their present masses.
After the gas dispersal, the Primordial Solar System began its evolution. In
the inner Solar System, planetary embryos formed the terrestrial planets and,
in combination with the gravitational perturbations of the giant planets,
depleted the residual population of planetesimals. In the outer Solar System,
giant planets underwent a violent, chaotic phase of orbital rearrangement which
caused the Late Heavy Bombardment. Then the rapid and fierce evolution of the
young Solar System left place to the more regular secular evolution of the
Modern Solar System. Vesta, through its connection with HED meteorites, and
plausibly Ceres too were between the first bodies to form in the history of the
Solar System. Here we discuss the timescale of their formation and evolution
and how they would have been affected by their passage through the different
phases of the history of the Solar System, in order to draw a reference
framework to interpret the data that Dawn mission will supply on them.
