CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The asteroid that got smacked by a NASA spacecraft is now being trailed by thousands of miles of debris. Astronomers captured the scene millions of miles away with a telescope in Chile. Their remarkable observation days after the planetary defense test last month was released by the a National Science Foundation lab in Arizona. The picture clearly shows a rapidly expanding 6,000-mile trail of dust and rubble that was spewed from the impact crater. One of the two scientists who made the observation says the comet-like plume is accelerating away from the asteroid mainly because of pressure on it from solar radiation.
Smacked asteroid’s debris trail more than 6,000 miles long
