On Sept. 26, 2022, NASA conducted a first-of-its-kind experiment, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), designed to intentionally smash a spacecraft into a small asteroid in the world’s first-ever in-space test for planetary defense. NASA declared the mission was successful in altering the orbit of Dimorphos, the asteroid moonlet of Didymos. However, there is still much to learn about the system.

Follow-up observations from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope are already revealing the clearest image of a stunning surprise— a newly developed second tail of ejecta.