A NASA spacecraft intentionally slammed into a stadium-sized asteroid on Sept. 26 — possibly giving the space rock its worst day of the last 1,000 years — and then the paparazzi showed up.
LICIACube, a satellite the size of a breadbox provided by the Italian Space Agency, arrived on the scene of the crash three minutes later, taking pictures of the impact and debris plume. The images, combined with data from a follow-up European space mission, will help scientists prepare to intervene if an asteroid ever threatens to hit the planet in the future.
Image: A tiny Italian satellite caught the intense aftermath of DART's impact with the Dimorphos asteroid. Credit: ASI / NASA
