New observations of an asteroid slammed by Nasa’s Dart spacecraft last week have revealed the space rock now has a long comet-like tail of dust and debris from the collision stretching thousands of miles across.

The dust trail formed from ejecta blasted from asteroid Dimorphos’s surface on collision with the Dart probe was spotted by astronomers using the Southern Astrophysical Research (Soar) Telescope in Chile.

They estimated the debris likely stretches about 10,000km or 6000 miles from the point of impact on the asteroid.

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“It is amazing how clearly we were able to capture the structure and extent of the aftermath in the days following the impact,” astronomer Teddy Kareta from the Lowell Observatory in Arizona said in a statement.

Read more: Independent