{"id":678405,"date":"2026-07-07T11:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T11:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/678405\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T11:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T11:38:13","slug":"first-ever-close-up-revealed-of-earths-rare-minimoon-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/678405\/","title":{"rendered":"First-Ever Close-Up Revealed of Earth’s Rare ‘Minimoon’ : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did you know Earth has a ‘minimoon’? It’s known as asteroid<\/a> 2016HO3, or Kamo\u02bboalewa.<\/p>\n

A probe sent for the China National Space Administration (CNSA) mission, Tianwen-2, has just returned its first picture<\/a> of the quasi-satellite, named after a Hawaiian chant for an oscillating object in the sky.<\/p>\n

The probe is CNSA’s first asteroid sample-return mission, which launched on 29 May 2025 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.<\/p>\n

Now, after 13 months of travel across around 1 billion kilometers (around six hundred million miles) of space, Tianwen-2 has arrived at its primary destination, the agency says<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since July 2, the probe has been hanging out about 20 kilometers from Kamo\u02bboalewa, from which it snapped this portrait of the ‘minimoon’.<\/p>\n

\"China'sTianwen-2 probe image of asteroid 2016HO3, taken from a distance of about 20 kilometers on 2 July 2026. (CNSA<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Kamo\u02bboalewa is too distant to be considered a bona fide Earth satellite, and its main orbit is around the Sun. But since it skirts our planet in an elliptical orbit every 45 years, it qualifies for rare ‘quasi-satellite’ status \u2013 just one of seven<\/a> known to orbit Earth.<\/p>\n

It’s a member of the asteroid class known as the Apollo asteroids, which more or less share Earth’s orbit around the Sun. However, as a quasi-satellite, Kamo\u02bboalewa remains near Earth across long periods and multiple orbits.<\/p>\n

What we already know about Kamo\u02bboalewa is scant, based on observations from a distance. It’s approximately 40 to 100 meters in diameter, which means it may turn out to be the smallest asteroid ever visited by human spacecraft.<\/p>\n

\"YouTube frameborder=”0\u2033 allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen><\/p>\n

After its long journey from Earth, Tianwen-2 made its first optical detection of Kamo\u02bboalewa on June 6, and by June 19, it had approached to within 2,000 km.<\/p>\n

By July 2, it was just 20 km away from the asteroid: close enough to capture the image above.<\/p>\n

As part of its mission, Tianwen-2 will conduct in-orbit observations of the rock, and collect samples to bring back to Earth, as described in a paper published in Space Science Reviews <\/a>back in January. <\/p>\n

“Among the known near-Earth asteroids, 2016HO3 is an exceptionally rare Earth co-orbital object,” physicist Rongqiao Zhang, of the Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center in Beijing, and his colleagues, explained<\/a> in a research article in January.<\/p>\n

“As an Earth quasi-satellite, its orbital period is close to that of Earth, enabling low energy transfer, and it maintains a stable distance of about 0.1\u20130.3 AU from Earth, providing favorable conditions for tracking, control, and communication.”<\/p>\n

Scientists want to know if it’s a pile of rubble or a monolithic body; whether there are traces of water, and what else it’s made of; how its orbit evolved; and whether solar wind has anything to do with it.<\/p>\n

\"Subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n

The researchers noted<\/a> that its unusual orbit, enigmatic origin, and unresolved questions about its physical properties “make it a compelling candidate for addressing fundamental questions about the origins of Earth’s quasi-satellites and the dynamical evolution of their orbits”.<\/p>\n

The samples it sends back to Earth will help confirm whether Kamo\u02bboalewa is indeed a bit of Moon<\/a>, as scientists have deduced from telescope observations.<\/p>\n

Related: A Massive Rock Orbiting The Sun Appears to Have Originated Surprisingly Close to Us<\/a><\/p>\n

After this roughly nine-month stop at Kamo\u02bboalewa, Tianwen-2 will continue on to main-belt comet 311P<\/a>, which is past Mars<\/a>. But not before dropping off its capsule of samples from the quasi-moon during an Earth flyby.<\/p>\n

311P stands out for its bizarre, six-pronged dust tail, and we’re still not really sure of its shape, so researchers are keen to investigate these questions up close.<\/p>\n

The comet also happens to coincide with the trajectory of Tianwen-2’s return mission, so it’s a convenient target for a main-belt flyby.<\/p>\n

It’s a big mission for tiny objects, and we can’t wait to see what they discover. <\/p>\n

This article was fact-checked by Carly Cassella<\/a> and edited by Peter Dockrill<\/a>. While we pride ourselves on our process, we are only human. If you spot a mistake, please let us know<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Did you know Earth has a ‘minimoon’? It’s known as asteroid 2016HO3, or Kamo\u02bboalewa. A probe sent for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[59,249,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-678405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-gb","tag-msft-content","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}