Last month’s intentional crash of NASA’s DART spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos was historic.  Space geeks everywhere on earth, had their telescopes trained on the NASA test. It may have been the most photographed space event in history. And space experts are still evaluating the results.

On Sept. 26, NASA crashed its Double Asteroid Redirection Test aka DART spacecraft traveling at 14,000 miles an hour into Dimorphos. It took 10 months for DART to travel to the asteroid's surface to crash.

Astronomers captured images of an estimated 6,200-mile comet-like trail. The impact from the collision caused tons of space dust and debris to be blown off the surface of the asteroid.

The live-streamed event took place 6.8 million miles from Earth, but the space scientists had a front-row seat.  

The DART test was designed to see if the asteroid could be pushed off orbit. It was in essence a planetary defense test. And they were testing the possibility of deflecting dangerous space rocks that may be set on a collision course for Earth in the future.

Space geeks continue to investigate

 NASA's mission cost $325 million. And it was a collaborative effort. Astronomers, NASA scientists, and space geeks everywhere are involved.

An image of the massive display of space dust and debris was captured by astronomers Teddy Kareta from the Lowell Observatory and Matthew Night from the U.S. Naval Academy. 

Two days after the crash test Chile-based NOIRLab's Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile captured some new images. just two days after the crash test. Radiation from the sun pushed away the tail.  Astronomers estimated the tail was around 6,200 miles long.

"It is amazing how clearly we were able to capture the structure and extent of the aftermath in the days following the impact," Kareta said in a news release.

"Now begins the next phase of work for the DART team as they analyze their data and observations by our team and other observers around the world who shared in studying this exciting event," Knight said.

 The SOAR team will continue monitoring the debris trail as long as it remains visible throughout space.

 They are getting many insights about the surface of Dimorphos, how much space debris resulted from the crash, and the size of the astroparticle ejected. Their continuing observations will enable them to make evidence-based conclusions.

"Analyzing this information will help scientists protect Earth and its inhabitants by better understanding the amount and nature of the ejecta resulting from an impact, and how that might modify an asteroid's orbit," the scientists release added.