In 2021, a team of University of Arizona astronomers suggested that a recently discovered near-Earth asteroid, Kamo`oalewa, could be a chunk of the moon.
In 2021, a team of University of Arizona astronomers suggested that a recently discovered near-Earth asteroid, Kamo`oalewa, could be a chunk of the moon. Two years after the striking discovery, another UArizona research group has found that a rare pathway could have enabled this to happen.
So far, only distant asteroids from beyond the orbit of Mars have been considered a source of near-Earth asteroids, said Renu Malhotra, Regents Professor of planetary sciences and a senior author on the paper.
"We are now establishing that the moon is a more likely source of Kamo`oalewa," Malhotra said.
The implication is that many more lunar fragments remain to be discovered among the near-Earth asteroid population. The study was published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.
Read more at University of Arizona
Image: An artistic representation of a meteorite impacting the moon surface. (Credit: NASA)
