Asteroid collision forensics
In the first half of February 2009, two asteroids collided in a region of space beyond the orbit of Mars, as scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany have now discovered. The researchers were able to pinpoint the exact date of the impact more precisely than ever before. The debris of the crash had attracted the attention of scientists worldwide. Together with the largest earthbound telescopes and the Hubble Space Telescope, the OSIRIS camera system onboard ESA's space probe Rosetta, that was developed and is now operated under the lead of the MPS, took a close look at these remains. The space probe's unique viewpoint, combined with detailed computer simulations, allowed the scientists from the MPS to reconstruct the collision precisely. Until now, such a recent clash of two asteroids was unknown...