The Hubble telescope has snapped the aftermath of an asteroid collision.

A detailed look at the heart of the smash-up (inset) reveals that it was “the product of a head-on collision between two asteroids traveling five times faster than a rifle bullet (5 kilometers per second)”, according to HubbleSite.

The asteroid belt is a constant demolition derby as hunks of space rock whizz around, but apparently this is the first time that a collision has actually been caught on film. The nucleus of rock left behind after the collision is about 150 metres across, and is surrounded by a spray of dust and rubble, some of which are swept back into streaks by the pressure of radiation from the Sun. The whole mess is about 140 million kilometres away from Earth.

Covering the story, Reuters justifies its frankly desperate headline (‘Smashed asteroids may be related to dinosaur killer’) with the view that the asteroids were “possible siblings of the rogue rock blamed for killing the dinosaurs millions of years ago”.

The Register does much better with ‘Hubble snaps space conker bonk aftermath’. Oh, and a hat tip to PopSci for the best geek lede: “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, it wasn’t uncommon to see X-shaped bodies dashing about a solar system …”