PanSTARRS telescope tagged posts

Near-Earth Asteroid might be a Lost Fragment of the Moon

The Earth, the asteroid Kamo`oalewa and the moon
An artist’s impression of Earth quasi-satellite Kamo`oalewa near the Earth-moon system. Using the Large Binocular Telescope, astronomers have shown that it might be a lost fragment of the moon.Addy Graham/University of Arizona

A near-Earth asteroid named Kamo`oalewa could be a fragment of our moon, according to a new paper published in Nature Communications Earth and Environment by a team of astronomers led by the University of Arizona.

Kamooalewa is a quasi-satellite -- a subcategory of near-Earth asteroids that orbit the sun but remain relatively close to Earth. Little is known about these objects because they are faint and difficult to observe. Kamooalewa was discovered by the PanSTARRS telescope in Hawaii in 2016, and the name — found in a Hawaiian creation chant — alludes to an...

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