Kamo’oalewa, a semi-satellite asteroid, is believed to be part of the moon

and nowAsteroid 2016 HO3 Returns to the front of the stage. It was first discovered on April 27, 2016 by telescope When studying the Pan-Starrs 1 asteroids in Haleakalā, Hawaii, they are not just members of the Apollo family of asteroids. Of course, like all of the more than 14,000 objects known to date of this type, it is one of the Nearby objects on Earth whose elliptical orbit has a semi-major axis greater than 1 UA And at a distance Soleil to me all time low It’s less than 1,017 AU. But 2016 HO3 is essentially a semi-satellite of the Earth, which means that although it orbits the sun, its motion causes it to move for some time as if it was orbiting the Earth.

Since its discovery, 2016 HO3 meanwhile has officially become (469219) Kamo’oalewa, a name derived from Hawaiian and found in National anthem From the creation that refers to the offspring that travels alone. We know that the size varies from a few tens to a hundred meters. So it is a dimly lit object Astronomy scientists He continued his studies with a powerful telescope, in this case the Big Eyed telescope on Mount Graham in southern Arizona. It is known in English by its abbreviation LBT, for big binocular telescope. her two mirrors It has a diameter of 8.4 meters and stands on the same stand. Kamo’oalewa is about 4 million times lighter than the star, lighter than the starEye Anyone can see in a dark sky. But with these big mirrors enough on fire You could focus on studying, for example. Domain from the surface of the body.

Lunar collision kicked him out?

A team of astronomers led by Ben Sharkey, a graduate student in planetary sciences at the University of Arizona, has come to an astonishing conclusion as they try to better determine its composition. It was revealed in an article published in the prestigious magazine The nature of earth communication and the environment.

For nearly three years, Ben Sharkey and his colleagues worked to prove that what he had seen could not be true, and eventually came to terms with not just the possibilities, but the possibility.

ghost light reflected On the surface of Kamo’oalewa only corresponds to this: Moon rocks were brought to Earth by the Apollo missions. No spectra of identical near-Earth asteroids were obtained.

Another feature of Kamaloa is the controversy over the origin of the moon, and its orbit is not typical for near-Earth objects. So we will be in the presence of a part of our satellite that was ejected on an unspecified date due to a subsequent impact on the surface terrestrial. This in itself is not something unusual, because we find it on Earth meteorites Which undoubtedly has a lunar origin if we make comparisons with rocksApollo.

Astronomers believe that Kamo’oalewa will not remain Earth’s semi-moon for very long, perhaps another 300 years. It would have reached this orbit about 500 years ago. However, we still have plenty of time to visit it a bit… The Chinese have the project.