The China National Space Administration has shared the first image from its Tianwen-2 probe, which is en route to Kamo\u2019oalewa, a near-Earth asteroid.<\/p>\n
The image was captured by a camera onboard the probe, which is currently more than 3 million kilometers from Earth, and shows one of its wings with its solar panels deployed. It is also the first glimpse the CNSA has offered of its space probe, which launched on May 29 on a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Zeyuan Town, China. The design of Tianwen-2\u2019s panels is similar in appearance to those on Lucy, NASA\u2019s<\/a> space probe that is exploring asteroids<\/a> floating near Jupiter<\/a>. These serve to meet the power demands required for the trip.<\/p>\n Tianwen-2\u2019s mission is to land on the surface of Kamo\u2019oalewa, collect samples, and return to Earth. The spacecraft is scheduled to land on the asteroid\u2019s surface in July 2026. Before then, it will spend several months studying Kamo\u2019oalewa from a safe distance, to determine its sampling area, before proceeding with landing maneuvers, a particularly difficult task given the asteroid\u2019s low gravity.<\/p>\n Once the samples have been collected, Tianwen-2 will travel back to Earth and send its samples down to the surface in a capsule, before then attempting to use Earth\u2019s gravity as a slingshot to head toward 311P\/PanSTARRS, an unusual-looking asteroid beyond Mars<\/a> that has some of the characteristics of a comet, including visible tails. Tianwen-2 is expected to conduct this mission until 2035.<\/p>\n The Enigma of the Hawaiian Quasi-Moon<\/p>\n Kamo\u2019oalewa is one of Earth\u2019s seven known quasi-moons<\/a>\u2014objects that appear to be orbiting our planet, but which aren\u2019t actually gravitationally bound to Earth, and are actually asteroids circling the sun in an orbit similar to Earth\u2019s.<\/p>\n Discovered in 2016 by astronomers at the Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii, Kamo\u2019oalewa\u2014whose name means \u201coscillating celestial object\u201d in Hawaiian\u2014is located approximately 4.65 million kilometers from our planet, 12 times further away from Earth than the moon. Kamo\u2019oalewa is estimated to be roughly 40 to 100 meters in diameter, has maintained its current orbit for 100 years, and will probably maintain it for 300 more.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hoped that Tianwen-2 can solve the mystery of Kamo\u2019oalewa\u2019s origin. One theory<\/a> is that it\u2019s a chunk of rock that broke off from the moon millions of years ago. The sampling mission will help multiple scientific investigations into the composition of rocky celestial bodies, as well as aid scientists in the search for clues about the formation of the solar system.<\/p>\n Observational evidence and modeling suggest that Kamo\u2019oalewa has been orbiting the sun for millions of years, albeit with an unstable trajectory. A direct exploration of this asteroid could, in addition, expand knowledge about nearby celestial objects that might potentially pose a threat to Earth.<\/p>\n