• Footage has emerged of the first time humans intentionally slammed a spacecraft into an asteroid.
• Dimorphos is 11 million kilometers from Earth and poses no threat to the planet, but is being used as a historic test run for future stardom.
• The collision was captured by ground-based observatories and the toast-sized satellite LICIACube.

In the grainy black-and-white film, the Dimorphos asteroid is hurtling through space when a tremendous cloud of debris erupts in front of it, signifying only one thing: impact.

Astronomers have praised this early footage of the first time humans intentionally slammed a spacecraft, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impactor, into an asteroid, stating that it appears to have caused “considerable damage.”

Despite the fact that Dimorphos is 11 million kilometers away and poses no threat to Earth, it is being utilized as a historic test run so that the world would be prepared to protect itself if an asteroid ever threatens the planet in the future. The first photographs of the collision were captured by ground-based observatories and the toast-sized satellite LICIACube, which had split from DART a few weeks prior.

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