A near-Earth asteroid discovered less than a decade ago might be ejecta from the moon, rather than a space rock that arose in the well-established asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, UC San Diego researchers say in the latest issue of the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment.
The scientists suspect that a meteorite strike on the moon threw off lots of material, including the asteroid, which researchers named Kamo`oalewa. The rock comes comparatively close to Earth and the moon as it orbits the sun.
“Elements from this space body can give us information about the formation of the Earth’s moon and improve our knowledge of near-Earth asteroids,” UCSD researcher Aaron Rosengren told a campus publication. He is a senior author on the new paper.
China has said that it will send a spacecraft to sample Kamo`oalewa in the next year or two.
