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astronomer have found more evidence that a nigh - Earthasteroidis an ejected clod of the synodic month .
The asteroid Kamo’oalewa — a Hawaiian name that means " the oscillating sherd " — is a Ferris - rack - size tilt lump that orbits within 9 million miles ( 14.4 million kilometers ) of Earth every April .
Kamo`oalewa near the Earth-Moon system.
Since the aim ’s discovery in 2016 , scientists have puzzled over the strange rock ’s origins , and they were surprised when a 2021 depth psychology unveil that Kamo’oalewa ’s composition issimilar to the moon ’s .
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Now , a new survey , publish Oct. 23 in the journalCommunications Earth & Environment , describes a practicable way that an ancient asteroid impact could have shunt the space rock’n’roll onto its current trajectory and suggest there could be more moon chunks float around thesolar system .
A representation of a meteorite impacting the moon surface.
" We are now establishing that the moon is a more likely source of Kamo’oalewa , " lead authorRenu Malhotra , a world-wide scientist at the University of Arizona , said in a affirmation .
Two strange orbital property drew uranologist to investigate Kamo’oalewa . First , as a " quasi - satellite " of Earth , it is so nigh to our planet that it appear to orbit it , even though its existent orbital partner isthe sun . secondly , the asteroid is projected to stick closely by Earth ’s side for meg of class , whereas many near - Earth objects hang around for only decades .
These unusual person led the astronomers to conduct an analysis of the asteroid ’s spectra in 2021 . They found that the light emitted and absorbed by Kamo’oalewa argue that the asteroid was belike made of moonlight rock .
" We looked at Kamo’oalewa ’s spectrum only because it was in an unusual electron orbit , " Malhotra enunciate . " If it had been a distinctive skinny - ground asteroid , no one would have thought to discover its spectrum and we would n’t have recognize Kamo’oalewa could be a lunar sherd . "
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By simulating asteroid impact on the lunar month and the gravitational force that chuck out chunks would be subjected to , the research worker ground a small possibility that some of the tilt would end up in skinny - Earth sphere . Prior to the calculations , astronomers expected most launched lunar material to either kingdom back on the synodic month or rain down down on Earth — not end up in a remote orbit around the sun .
The researchers said their finding could give them a better understanding ofhazardous near - world asteroid . Their next steps will be to figure out the conditions that could have push the rock into its cranial orbit and to find out just when the impingement took topographic point .
