Named Kamo’oalewa, after the Hawaiian creation hymn referring to the offspring traveling alone, the quasi-satellite was first discovered in 2016 by astronomers using the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii. Pan-STARRS stands for Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System.
A quasi-satellite is a type of near-Earth asteroid that orbits the Sun but sticks close to Earth.
Astronomers do not know much about this type of asteroid because it is very difficult to observe. In the case of Kamo`oalewa, scientists have only been able to observe it for a few weeks each April since its discovery. Kamo`oalewa is about 4 million times fainter than the faintest star we can see with the naked eye in the night sky.
The asteroid is between 150 and 190 feet (46 and 58 meters) in diameter, and is about the size of a ferris wheel. During its orbit, it lies 9 million miles (14.5 million km) from Earth. It looks like a large asteroid, but is small when compared to other rock remains that could be the size of the Empire State Building or larger.
moon effect
Only the largest ground telescope on Earth could identify the asteroid, so astronomers used the Big-Eyed Telescope on Mount Graham in southern Arizona to make observations. They determined that the spectrum of Kamo’oalewa, or the pattern of reflected light, matched lunar surface minerals and lunar rocks collected during NASA’s Apollo missions.
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This indicates that Kamo`oalewa was once part of the moon and separated to form an asteroid. Astronomers are unsure when this impact occurred because currently no other asteroids are known to have created on the Moon.
Researchers believe the asteroid may have been the result of debris from an ancient impact event, or formed from the gravitational disintegration of a larger object during a close encounter with Earth and the Moon.
Evidence of the origin of the moon
“I’ve looked into every near-Earth asteroid spectrum we’ve obtained, and nothing matches it,” study lead author Ben Sharkey, a doctoral student in the University of Arizona’s Department of Planetary Science, said in a statement.
Sharkey and his adviser, Vishnu Reddy, professor of planetary science at the University of Arizona, participated in discussions about the asteroid’s origin and continued observations to determine other possibilities.
“We doubted ourselves to death,” said Reddy, one of the study’s authors, in a statement.
While the telescope was closed in April 2020 due to the pandemic, this year offers another opportunity.
“This spring, we got a much-needed follow-up note and said, ‘Wow, this is real,’” Sharkey said. “It’s easier to explain with the moon than with other ideas.”
The asteroid’s orbit, which makes it difficult to see, also hints that it came from the moon. While Kamo’oalewa orbits the Sun in a similar way to Earth, it has a slight tilt unlike other near-Earth asteroids, said study co-author Renu Malhotra, Louise Focar-Marshall Professor of Science Research and Professor of Planetary Science. at Regents University of Arizona. .
“It is highly unlikely that a park-type near-Earth asteroid will transition into a satellite-like orbit like You Oliwa,” Malhotra said in a statement. “It won’t last very long in this particular orbit, only about the next 300 years, and we estimate it reached this orbit about 500 years ago.”
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