{"id":62225,"date":"2026-07-07T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/?guid=ede91cc846857b06e0303316ca692333"},"modified":"2026-07-07T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T16:00:00","slug":"china-releases-1st-photo-of-earths-elusive-quasi-moon-kamooalewa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/2026\/07\/07\/china-releases-1st-photo-of-earths-elusive-quasi-moon-kamooalewa\/","title":{"rendered":"China releases 1st photo of Earth&#8217;s elusive &#8216;quasi-moon&#8217; Kamo&#8217;oalewa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n                            \n                            <article>\n                                <p>China's first-ever asteroid sampling mission has sent home a picture of its first target, the \"quasi-moon\" Kamo'oalewa.<\/p><p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/launches-spacecraft\/sampling-a-quasi-moon-whats-next-for-chinas-newly-launched-tianwen-2-mission\"><u>Tianwen-2<\/u><\/a> probe launched in 2025 and traveled 620 million miles (1 billion kilometers) to reach a safe distance about 12 miles (20 km) away from Kamo'oalewa, more formally known as asteroid 2016HO3. The spacecraft will spend nearly a year studying the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/51-asteroids-formation-discovery-and-exploration.html\"><u>asteroid<\/u><\/a> with a suite of 11 different scientific instruments before attempting to collect a sample from its surface, which will be sent back to Earth. <\/p><p>The new photo was taken on July 2, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/english.news.cn\/20260706\/1fa8b2c2867f458ea54733ee28f78365\/c.html\" ><u>China's Xinhua news outlet<\/u><\/a>, and reveals the asteroid to be a small, asymmetrical rock measuring around 50\u201365 feet (16\u201320 meters) in diameter. While its origin isn't known, some scientists believe this quasi-moon could have been created when a massive impact <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/quasi-moon-kamooalewa-giant-lunar-impact\"><u>knocked a chunk of our own moon into space<\/u><\/a> between 1 million and 10 million years ago.<\/p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/content.jwplatform.com\/players\/U56sbdBe.html\" id=\"U56sbdBe\" title=\"China's Tianwen-2 probe captures selfie with Earth en route to asteroid\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"auto\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><p>So-called quasi-moons (or quasi-satellites) are small bodies like Kamo'oalewa that circle the sun on orbits that keep them close to our planet. Earth has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/astronomy\/earth-may-have-at-least-6-minimoons-at-any-given-time-where-do-they-come-from\"><u>at least seven known quasi-satellites<\/u><\/a>, and our planet's gravity will occasionally capture others temporarily before they are flung back out into orbit around the sun. In general, the orbits of these quasi-moons are less stable than the orbits of true moons. <\/p><p>Unlike most near-Earth asteroids that are thought to originate from the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, Kamo'oalewa could have come from much closer to home. A 2024 study published in Nature Astronomy proposes Kamo'oalewa could be material ejected from the moon by the impact <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/quasi-moon-kamooalewa-giant-lunar-impact\"><u>that formed Giordano Bruno crater<\/u><\/a>.<\/p><p>Sample of the asteroid collected by Tianwen-2 could help prove that hypothesis, if the mission is successful.<\/p><figure class=\"van-image-figure  inline-layout\" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style=\"max-width:2000px;\"><p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\"><img id=\"9CNromhBK9mBpuPYTV8Mci\" name=\"earth moon kamo oalewa\" alt=\"an illustration of the moon, with earth visible in the far distance, and a small grey rock in between the two\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/9CNromhBK9mBpuPYTV8Mci.jpg\" mos=\"\" align=\"middle\" fullscreen=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\" attribution=\"\" endorsement=\"\" class=\"inline\"><\/p><\/div><\/div><figcaption itemprop=\"caption description\" class=\" inline-layout\"><span class=\"caption-text\">An artist's impression of Kamo'oalewa near the Earth-moon system. <\/span><span class=\"credit\" itemprop=\"copyrightHolder\">(Image credit: Addy Graham\/University of Arizona)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><p>Tianwen-2 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/launches-spacecraft\/china-launching-tianwen-2-mission-today-to-snag-samples-of-a-near-earth-asteroid\"><u>launched on May 28, 2025<\/u><\/a> atop a Long March 3B rocket from Xichang spaceport in southwestern China. The appearance of the spacecraft wasn't revealed until China's space agency released an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/missions\/chinas-tianwen-2-spacecraft-sends-home-1st-photo-as-it-heads-for-mysterious-quasi-moon-asteroid\"><u>image beamed home by Tianwen-2<\/u><\/a> when it was 1.8 million miles (3 million km) away from Earth. This occurred just over a week past launch.<\/p><figure class=\"van-image-figure  inline-layout\" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style=\"max-width:2000px;\"><p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\"><img id=\"3ordVRNBJBpiz4LJpn4QVm\" name=\"tianwen2 spacecraft selfie\" alt=\"an octagonal solar panel on the end of a metal arm that extends outward from a metallic rectangle, just out of view on the left side of the image\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/3ordVRNBJBpiz4LJpn4QVm.jpg\" mos=\"\" align=\"middle\" fullscreen=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\" attribution=\"\" endorsement=\"\" class=\"inline\"><\/p><\/div><\/div><figcaption itemprop=\"caption description\" class=\" inline-layout\"><span class=\"caption-text\">The first public image of China's Tianwen 2 spacecraft, released by China's space agency well after the spacecraft was on its way to its first asteroid target. <\/span><span class=\"credit\" itemprop=\"copyrightHolder\">(Image credit: CNSA)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><p>While Tianwen-2 marks China's first asteroid sample attempt, Japan and the United States have already performed successful space-rock-sample missions of their own. Japan's <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/40156-hayabusa.html\"><u>Hayabusa<\/u><\/a> spacecraft executed the world's first asteroid sample return mission when it sent material from asteroid 25143 Itokawa back to Earth in 2010. <\/p><p>The United States accomplished the feat in 2023 with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/33776-osiris-rex.html\"><u>OSIRIS-REx<\/u><\/a> mission that snagged material from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/39958-asteroid-bennu.html\"><u>asteroid Bennu<\/u><\/a>. Those samples have already produced surprising scientific data, including the fact they <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/asteroid-ryugu-building-blocks-life\"><u>contain the amino acids we consider vital for life<\/u><\/a> here on Earth.<\/p><p>Tianwen-2 is China's first-ever mission to an asteroid and its second planetary exploration mission overall. Its first interplanetary endeavor, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/tianwen-1.html\"><u>Tianwen-1<\/u><\/a>, saw an orbiter and a rover reach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/astronomy\/solar-system\/mars\"><u>Mars<\/u><\/a> in 2020.<\/p><p>More Tianwen missions are in the works. China plans to launch the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/china-tianwen-2-mars-sample-return-mission-2028\"><u>Tianwen-3<\/u><\/a> Mars sample-return mission in 2028 and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/china-probes-jupiter-uranus-same-launch\"><u>Tianwen 4<\/u><\/a> two years later to study Jupiter and Uranus. <\/p>\n                                                            <\/article>\n                            \n                        ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>China&#8217;s Tianwen-2 probe beamed home a photo of its target, asteroid 2016HO3, also known as quasi-moon Kamo&#8217;oalewa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":634,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2977,2796,1263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asteroid-amp-comet-missions","category-missions","category-space-exploration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62225"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/634"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62225"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62226,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62225\/revisions\/62226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}