CNN Indonesia
Monday, 06 Nov 2023 08:47 IWST
Illustration. Astronomers have found more evidence that near-Earth asteroids are fragments of the Moon. (Photo: iStockphoto)
Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
For astronomer found more evidence that asteroid Near Earth is a fragmented chunk of the Moon.
The Kamo’oalewa asteroid, which is Hawaiian for “oscillating fragment”, is a chunk of rock that orbits within 14.4 million kilometers of Earth every April.
Since the discovery of the object in 2016, scientists have been puzzled by the origins of the strange rock, and they were surprised when analysis in 2021 revealed that Kamo’oalewa’s composition is similar to that of the Moon.
Now, a new study published on October 23 in journal Communications Earth & Environment, describes the possible way that an ancient asteroid impact could have pushed the space rock onto its current trajectory and suggests that there may be more chunks of the moon floating around the solar system.
“We have now determined that the Moon is the more likely source for Kamo’oalewa,” said lead author Renu Malhotra, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona.
There are at least two unusual orbital properties that attracted astronomers to investigate Kamo’oalewa. First, as a “pseudo-satellite” of Earth, this asteroid is so close to our planet that it appears to be orbiting Earth, even though its true orbital counterpart is the sun.
Second, this asteroid is projected to remain next to Earth for millions of years, whereas many near-Earth objects only last for a few decades.
This anomaly prompted astronomers to conduct a spectrum analysis of the asteroid in 2021. They found that the light emitted and absorbed by Kamo’oalewa indicated that the asteroid was most likely made from lunar rock.
“We observed Kamo’oalewa’s spectrum only because this asteroid is in an unusual orbit,” Malhotra said in Live Science.
“If this asteroid was a near-Earth asteroid in general, no one would have thought that its spectrum was like that and we would not have known that Kamo’oalewa was a fragment of the Moon,” he continued.
By simulating an asteroid impact with the Moon, the researchers found it was unlikely that some of the rocks would end up in near-Earth orbit.
Before the calculations were carried out, astronomers suspected that most of the launched lunar material would land back on the Moon or rain down on Earth, and would not end up in orbit far from the Sun.
The researchers say their findings could provide a better understanding of dangerous near-Earth asteroids. The next step is to find out the conditions that could push the rock into orbit and find out when the impact occurred.
(tim/dmi)
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2023-11-06 01:47:04
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