Astronomers Say They Have Discovered Where the Kamo'oalewa Asteroid Came From

Amaze Lab

The Moon is Earth’s only natural satellite, but there are other solar orbiters out there that are more than just neighbors. Kamo'oalewa is one of them and its orbit is nearly identical to ours.

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:04 The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite,

00:06 but there are other solar orbiters out there that are more than just neighbors.

00:10 This is one of those objects, asteroid 2016 HO3,

00:14 also known as Como O'Oleva.

00:16 It's sometimes referred to as a co-orbiter

00:18 because its path around the Sun is so similar to our own,

00:21 yet off ever so slightly.

00:22 So where did it come from and why is it sharing our orbit?

00:25 Well, experts might finally have the answer.

00:27 Researchers looked directly at the Moon to find out,

00:30 as their initial hypothesis was that it was a piece of the lunar surface

00:33 that was chunked off during an impact.

00:35 That's because it reflects light in the same way as the Moon

00:37 and its color is essentially identical as well,

00:40 pointing to it being made of the same material.

00:42 Now, astronomers say they believe they have identified

00:44 the exact spot the asteroid came from,

00:47 here in the Giordano Bruno crater,

00:49 with the researchers writing, quote,

00:50 "We have explored the processes for impact-induced lunar fragments

00:54 migrating into Earth co-orbital space

00:56 and presented support for Como O'Oleva's possible origin

00:59 from the formation of the Giordano Bruno crater

01:02 a few million years ago."

01:03 There's just one thing,

01:04 the crater is a bit too big for all of it

01:06 to have ended up orbiting as this asteroid,

01:08 meaning more of it might be lurking out there

01:11 on a similar path with Earth as well.

01:14 (upbeat music)

01:16 (upbeat music)

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