A series of Hubble Space Telescope images revealing the break-up of an asteroid over a period of several months in late 2013. Photo: Nasa/ESA/D. Jewitt/UCLA/PA Wire

The break-up of an asteroid has been captured on film for the first time. Astronomers photographed the disintegration of an asteroid, showing it breaking up into 10 smaller pieces.

Experts pictured the P/2013 R3 asteroid using Nasa’s Hubble Space Telescope. Publishing details of what they witnessed in Astrophy-sical Journal Letters, they said that though fragile comet nuclei have been seen falling apart as they near the sun, nothing resembling this type of break-up has been observed before in the asteroid belt.

The pictures show the asteroid splitting up into smaller fragments between October last year and mid-January. The four largest rocky fragments are up to 180 metres in radius, the astronomers said.

They said that the debris of the asteroid will provide a “rich source of meteoroids” in the future. While most will plunge into the sun, a small fraction may one day enter the Earth’s atmosphere as meteors.

“Seeing this rock fall apart before our eyes is pretty amazing,” said David Jewitt, of the University of California, Los Angeles.

The astronomers said the asteroid began coming apart early last year, but new pieces continue to emerge in the most recent images.

The asteroid began coming apart early last year, but new pieces continue to emerge in the most recent images

They said it was unlikely that the asteroid is breaking up because of a collision with another, because that would have caused an “instantaneous and violent” break-up.

They said that the break-up is also unlikely to have been caused by interior ices warming and vaporising because it is too cold – being nearly 480 million kilometres from the sun.