Tianwen 2 Arrives at Quasi-Moon Kamoʻoalewa, Returns Photographs

It has been a busy week for asteroid exploration. Earlier this week, Japan’s Hayabusa 2 gave usthe first flyby views of contact-binary asteroid 98943 Torifune. Now, China’s Tianwen 2 mission has arrived at its sample-return goal, asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa.

Launched in Might 2025, the mission traveled greater than 1 billion kilometers (620 million miles), taking about 400 days to succeed in its vacation spot.

The spacecraft achieved its rendezvous with the asteroid round June seventh, initially station-keeping at a variety of 30,000 km earlier than decreasing its all the way down to 2,000 km distant on June nineteenth. Its orbit then lowered additional till it is now solely 20 km away from the asteroid’s floor. From that vantage level, Tianwen 2 captured the picture of Kamoʻoalewa proven above, launched by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) on July sixth.

The unusual worldlet is just 27 meters (90 toes) throughout, just a little over the size of an 18-wheeler trailer. Kamoʻoalewa is a “quasi-moon” of Earth, that means it orbits the Solar however, due to its present orbit, seems to orbit our planet. Orbiting the Solar as soon as each 365.77 days, Kamoʻoalewa typically leads and typically trails behind us.

“It appears a tremendous achievement to watch and attain such a small object,” says Sara Russell (London Museum of Pure Historical past). “I’m excited concerning the mission, as it’s a sample-return, bringing a fraction to Earth.”

Tianwen 2 is China’s first sample-return mission from an asteroid, although the house company has beforehand returned samples from the Moon with its Chang’e 5 and Chang’e 6 missions.

Origin of a Quasi-Moon

The origin of Kamoʻoalewa stays unclear. Early on, spectroscopy of its floor resembled the space-weathered regolith of the Moon, as seen in samples collected by Luna 24 and Apollo 14. That similarity that an affect may need excavated the asteroid from the Moon, maybe from Giordano Bruno Crater. Nonetheless, a new study proposes that the worldlet is as a substitute a better match to a selected kind of meteorite referred to as LL chondrites. That research urged the asteroid is a member of the Flora household within the inside asteroid belt.

Within the low-resoution picture we now have thus far, tiny Kamoʻoalewa seems as a jagged, stable fragment, moderately than a loosely gathered rubble pile, with few recognizable craters or giant boulders. However any actual evaluation awaits sharper photos in addition to the sample-return itself.

Now, Tianwen 2 will map the asteroid in preparation for a sampling try in late July or early August. The asteroid rotates as soon as each 28 minutes, making it a problem for the group.

“It is an fascinating beast, and touchdown goes to be enjoyable on that factor,” notes CNSA observer and journalist Andrew Jones.

If all goes effectively, anticipate to see a pattern of Kamoʻoalewa again on Earth by late November 2027. The spacecraft, in the meantime, will head on to Comet 311P/Pan-STARRS, with an arrival set for January 2035.

Actually, updates from the CNSA are temporary and sparse. Nonetheless, observers of China’s house exercise, together with Jones (andrewjonesspace.bsky.social on BlueSky) and radio observers similar to AMSAT-DL (@amsat-dl.org on BlueSky) are good sources for updates on missions similar to Tianwen 2.