One thing knocked a piece off the lunar floor
For some time, beginning within the yr 2016, it appeared as if Earth may need a second, much-smaller moon. However, after preliminary research of the article’s orbit, astronomers labeled 469219 Kamo’oalewa as a near-Earth asteroid (NEA) and a quasi-satellite to Earth.
So we all know that, like our moon, Kamo’oalewa stays near Earth over many orbital intervals, on this case for hundreds of years to come back. Kamo’oalewa seems as if it circles the Earth. Nevertheless it doesn’t, though its orbit across the sun is synchronized with Earth’s orbit.
However the moon does determine into Kamo’oalewa’s story. In 2021, astronomers utilizing spectroscopy revealed that Kamo’oalwea might in fact be a piece of the moon. The asteroid and the moon are apparently product of equivalent stuff: space-weathered silicates.
Now there’s extra.
Final Friday (April 19, 2024), one other group of astronomers printed information in Nature Astronomy supporting a lunar origin for Kamo’oalwea. Additionally they consider they know the impression crater that fashioned when Kamo’oalewa was blasted from the moon’s floor.
They suppose they’ve discovered the scar left by the impression that despatched Kamo’oalewa hurtling into space. The far aspect crater Giordano Bruno – named for the sixteenth century Italian thinker, poet, cosmological theorist and esotericist – appears to be the “doubtless” supply, they mentioned.
Rounding up the bizarre suspects
In reporting the brand new proof, Phys.org described the detective work that led a global workforce of scientists to the suspect crater:
The workforce started by creating a pc mannequin to imitate the kind of collision that might have resulted in a chunk of the moon’s floor the dimensions of Kamo’oalewa being flung into space. In so doing they had been capable of estimate the doubtless measurement of the asteroid that will have struck the moon, and from that, the dimensions of the crater it might have left behind.
Figuring out how giant the impactor was, and that the impression needed to be pretty latest, the workforce got here up with a brief record of attainable suspects for craters that may match Kamo’oalwea’s origin. Because it turned out, one crater had its fingerprints everywhere in the asteroid. From Phys.org:
They then in contrast samples of moon materials introduced again to Earth that had been discovered close to one prime risk – the Giordano Bruno crater. They discovered spectral similarities between the samples and the asteroid Kamo’oalewa – additionally they discovered each had bits of the mineral pyroxene in them as effectively.
Bingo. Case closed. Or is it?
House missions will proceed investigating asteroid Kamo’oalewa
Whereas it the thriller of Kamo’oalewa’s origin seems solved, a pair of upcoming space probes will check the workforce’s speculation.
First, launching in 2025, the Chinese language Tianwen-2 mission will acquire a pattern of Kamo’oalewa and return it to Earth. In line with the Planetary Society:
The spacecraft will rendezvous with asteroid Kamo’oalewa and perform distant sensing, assessing the planetary physique for potential touchdown websites. It is going to then try to gather samples from the small physique utilizing two completely different strategies — touch-and-go and anchor-and-attach — and return to Earth to ship the samples for evaluation. Altogether, this may take round 2.5 years.
A second mission – NASA’s NEO Surveyor space telescope launching in 2027 – ought to present extra helpful information in regards to the orbit of Kamo’oalwea. The NASA mission, nonetheless, isn’t about discovering the origin of near-Earth objects (NEO). NEO Surveyor hopes to search out doubtlessly hazardous asteroids and comets earlier than they discover us.
From the NEO Surveyor website:
After launch, NEO Surveyor will perform a five-year baseline survey to search out not less than two-thirds of the near-Earth objects bigger than 140 meters (460 toes). These are the objects giant sufficient to trigger main regional injury within the occasion of an Earth impression. Through the use of two heat-sensitive infrared imaging channels, NEO Surveyor could make correct measurements of NEO sizes and acquire invaluable details about their composition, shapes, rotational states, and orbits.
Backside line: A gaggle of astronomers say their information level to a lunar origin for the near-Earth asteroid Kamo’oalewa.
Source: Asteroid Kamo‘oalewa’s journey from the lunar Giordano Bruno crater to Earth 1:1 resonance
Read more: Piece of the moon? Asteroid might have lunar origin
