{"id":770323,"date":"2026-06-30T04:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T04:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/770323\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T04:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T04:34:11","slug":"chinas-taiwan-2-reaches-earths-mini-moon-sample-collection-set-to-begin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/770323\/","title":{"rendered":"China&#8217;s Taiwan-2 reaches Earth&#8217;s \u2018mini moon&#8217;, sample collection set to begin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/670750_7845515_updates.jpeg\" alt=\"China\u2019s first asteroid sample-return hits key milestone\" width=\"700\" height=\"400\" class=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>China\u2019s first asteroid sample-return hits key milestone<\/p>\n<p>China\u2019s ambitious asteroid exploration mission has reached a significant milestone as the Tianwen-2 spacecraft arrived at Kamo\u2019oalewa, a near-Earth asteroid often described as Earth\u2019s \u201cmini-moon,\u201d in early July 2026.<\/p>\n<p>The spacecraft was launched on May 28, 2025, and is approaching the asteroid, which is about the size of the Statue of Liberty. This marks China\u2019s first asteroid sample-return mission and showcases the country\u2019s expanding deep-space exploration capabilities. <\/p>\n<p>The asteroid was discovered in 2016 and is named \u201cKamo\u2019oalewa,\u201d a Hawaiian name which means \u201can oscillating celestial object.\u201d The asteroid orbits around the Sun in synchronisation with Earth, creating the illusion that it revolves around our planet like the Moon.<\/p>\n<p>This specific mission focuses on exploring the asteroid\u2019s potential lunar origin. Studies of light reflected from Kamo\u2019oalewa indicate it closely resembles lunar rocks collected during the Apollo missions. This leads scientists to believe it can be a fragment of the moon blasted into space by an ancient impact. <\/p>\n<p>Tianwen-2 will have to conduct remote sensing and mapping of the asteroid for several months before attempting to retrieve 20 to 100 grams of samples through touch-and-go and anchoring using drills.<\/p>\n<p>The capsule with the sample is scheduled to return to Earth in November 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China\u2019s first asteroid sample-return hits key milestone China\u2019s ambitious asteroid exploration mission has reached a significant milestone as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,66],"class_list":["post-770323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}