The China Nationwide House Administration’s asteroid probe Tianwen-2 efficiently reached the asteroid Kamo’oalewa, which orbits the Solar in a path almost similar to Earth’s.
After present process a number of orbital changes in deep area, it first detected Kamo’oalewa on June 6, 2026. On July 2, it efficiently captured the first-ever photographs of Kamo’oalewa from a distance of about 20 kilometers. This achievement comes on the finish of a 400 day journey masking a distance of roughly 1 billion kilometers.
Kamo’oalewa is essentially the most secure of Earth’s identified quasi-satellites, and since it orbits the Solar in near-synchronous movement with Earth, it’s thought of a comparatively accessible celestial physique.
However touchdown on the asteroid—not to mention gathering samples—can be a problem. Kamo’oalewa has a mean diameter of solely about 41 meters and rotates at excessive velocity. This implies the spacecraft should obtain secure contact and acquire samples inside a restricted timeframe. If it manages to collect samples, it’s going to then launch them in a capsule throughout an Earth flyby in November 2027.
Tianwen-2 is supplied with a number of cameras with completely different focal lengths. Along with switching between a narrow-field-of-view digicam and a wide-field-of-view digicam relying on the state of affairs, it additionally includes a removable digicam that can be used throughout pattern assortment. Because the probe’s orientation have to be finely adjusted when capturing photographs, seizing these restricted home windows of alternative is a particularly troublesome activity. Tianwen-2 plans to conduct extra detailed scientific observations of Kamo’oalewa’s form, materials composition, and inside construction.
If this mission is profitable, it’s going to mark one other achievement in asteroid pattern return, following Japan’s Hayabusa and Hayabusa2 missions—the primary to return asteroid samples to Earth—and NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. Materials from small celestial our bodies orbiting close to Earth may present one of many few clues to understanding the formation of the photo voltaic system, together with Kamo’oalewa.
“It’s extremely more likely to comprise primordial data from the early days of the photo voltaic system’s formation, and it holds nice scientific worth for learning early materials composition, formation processes, and evolutionary historical past,” explains Han Siyuan, deputy director of the Lunar and House Exploration Engineering Middle and spokesperson for the Tianwen-2 mission.
Researchers have beforehand theorized that Kamo’oalewa is a fragment of the Moon blown away by an asteroid impression thousands and thousands of years in the past has been widely accepted till not too long ago. It is because the spectrum of mirrored mild intently resembles that of silicate minerals discovered on the Moon’s floor. Simulations additionally backed the idea up.
In Could, although, a global analysis staff—together with the Chinese language Academy of Sciences— published a paper that casts doubt on this main speculation. A reanalysis of obtainable knowledge discovered that the central wavelength of the absorption band—the purpose the place mild weakens at a selected wavelength—matched the traits of LL chondrites (a kind of meteorite with low iron and metallic content material).
The analysis staff carried out an experiment by which they irradiated LL chondrite meteorite powder with a laser to simulate area weathering brought on by photo voltaic wind and micrometeorites. The outcomes intently matched observational knowledge of Kamo’oalewa. The researchers posit that Kamo’oalewa possible migrated to the Earth’s neighborhood from the Flora household—a bunch of celestial our bodies within the asteroid belt.
If Tianwen-2 efficiently completes its mission to take samples and return to Earth, it’s going to possible assist reply questions on Kamo’oalewa’s origins. However first, it has to achieve the asteroid’s floor.
This story initially appeared in WIRED Japan and has been translated from Japanese.
