Scientists have observed for the first time an asteroid breaking apart, crumbling into at least 10 pieces in a kind of slow-motion celestial train wreck.
The rocky asteroid, named P/2013 R3, was one of the innumerable objects populating the crowded asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, roughly three times farther away from the sun than Earth.
Asteroids have broken apart many times over the eons, but never before have scientists been able to witness it. The dramatic disintegration was first noticed through telescopes in Arizona and Hawaii, and scientists then got a better look using the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope.