Asteroid Dimorphos, struck by NASA spacecraft, leaves 10000 km debris trail
NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft intentionally crashed into Asteroid Dimorphos.
An asteroid which was deliberately smashed by NASA's DART spacecraft has left a trail of debris stretching thousands of kilometres, a new image captured by a telescope in Chile shows. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft intentionally crashed into Dimorphos, the asteroid moonlet in the double-asteroid system of Didymos, on September 26. This was the first planetary defence test in which an impact of a spacecraft attempted to modify the orbit of an asteroid. Two days after DART's impact, astronomers used the 4.1-meter Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope in Chile to capture the vast plume of dust and debris blasted from the asteroid's surface. ...