indy100 by Catherine Shuttleworth 4/28/2024
An asteroid discovered in 2016 has been something of a mystery since it was found but now astronomers believe it may be a chunk of the Moon.
In new analysis led by astronomer Yifei Jiao of Tsinghua University in China, the asteroid called Kamo'oalewa has been linked back to the Giordano Bruno crater on the far side of the Moon.
"We have explored the processes for impact-induced lunar fragments migrating into Earth co-orbital space and presented support for Kamo'oalewa's possible origin from the formation of the Giordano Bruno crater a few million years ago," the researchers write in their paper.
"This would directly link a specific asteroid in space to its source crater on the Moon and suggests the existence of more small asteroids composed of lunar material yet to be discovered in near-Earth space."
More:
https://www.indy100.com/science-tech/asteroid-second-moon-discovery
