In order to figure out how asteroids explode, JAXA fired a projectile at one.
From the giant comet that once wiped out 75 percent of life to the equally intimidating sucker that once killed off Téa Leoni, asteroids have long presented threats both real and imagined to our big blue marble.
And we’ve tried our best to stop them in their tracks, or at least limit the damage.
Earlier this month, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)’s spacecraft Hayabusa2practiced Earth defense against an asteroid striking the planet, planting a small projectile of a near-Earth object known as Ryugu.
Later this week, JAXA will return to the site and see what this man-made crater did to the asteroid.