The Chinese space agency has released photos of the asteroid Kamoʻoalewa taken by the Tianwen-2 probe from a distance of 20 km. This asteroid is a quasi-satellite of Earth. The probe is preparing to land on it and collect samples, which will then be brought back to Earth.
Photo of the asteroid
The Deutsche Welle news agency reports that the Chinese National Space Administration has released an image of the asteroid Kamoʻoalewa. The images were taken by the Tianwen-2 spacecraft, which approached the asteroid to within 20 km and is now orbiting it, gradually lowering its orbit.
You can read more about what the asteroid Kamoʻoalewa is and why the Chinese spacecraft was sent specifically to it right here. In short, this space rock is what’s known as a quasi-satellite of Earth. It orbits not around us, but around the Sun—yet it does so in such a way that it remains close to us at all times.
This position makes the asteroid a convenient target for an interplanetary mission. In addition, it holds one unsolved mystery—its origin. It’s quite possible that it was once part of the Moon but was later knocked off by an impact.
Tianwen-2 Mission
The photos taken by the Tianwen-2 mission aren’t of particularly high quality. They show a rock with an irregular, nearly triangular shape. However, it was worth the probe traveling nearly a billion kilometers over the course of a year. You can still count the number of close-up photos of asteroids on one hand. And now scientists have one more to add to that list.
However, this is not merely a matter of curiosity. Tianwen-2 is currently conducting a remote survey of the asteroid, and its primary focus is on the nature of its surface: whether it is solid or composed of individual grains. This will determine how the landing and sample collection will be carried out.
After that, the spacecraft will complete another orbit around the Sun, which will take one year. It will fly past Earth and drop a capsule containing samples onto the planet so they can be studied in a laboratory. Tianwen-2 will then perform a gravitational maneuver and fly off to study a degenerate comet in the Main Asteroid Belt.
