China Has Reached Earth Second Largest Moon!

James Kaufman, World News Report Today. China has reached Earth's second largest moon. China has reached one of Earth's several mini-moons. Everyone knows that Earth has a moon, but did you know that it also has mini-moons? We actually have several. This is the second largest of Earth's moons. This week, a spacecraft from China pulled up alongside it. On July 6th, the Chinese National Space Administration announced that its Tianwen-2 probe had arrived at asteroid 469219, better known as Kamoʻoalewa, a space rock that loops around our planet about once every year. This picture was snapped from about 20 kilometers away. This first contact photo reveals a house-sized body tumbling once every 28 minutes. That means it's probably a solid object, not a rubble pile that would easily spin apart. Kamoʻoalewa is not a true moon. It's a quasi-satellite, tracing lazy corkscrews around Earth while it actually orbits the Sun in near lockstep with our planet. Discovered by the Pan-STARRS Telescope in Hawaii in 2016, its name comes from a Hawaiian chant that means roughly, Oscillating Celestial Fragment. This is not Earth's only mini-moon. There are at least seven others. However, Kamoʻoalewa stands out as the most stable. It is expected to remain a quasi-satellite for centuries. That stability made it an attractive target for China's growing space program. Kamoʻoalewa looks like a chip of something much larger. But what? Some researchers believe it's a piece of our moon, blasted into space by the impact that dug a lunar crater. Others argue it wandered in from the asteroid belt. Tianwen-2 could settle the debate by bringing a piece of the mini-moon home. In the months ahead, the spacecraft will scout sampling sites using cameras and radar. Then comes the hard part. grabbing material from a rapidly spinning space rock. Tianwen-2 will try three different techniques, a touch-and-go tag like NASA's OSIRIS-REx, a hover-and-scoop from the robotic arm, and an anchor-and-attach maneuver that would fasten the probe directly to the surface of the rock. Remember, though, it's spinning every 28 minutes. Mission planners hope one of these techniques may work. If all goes well, Tianwen-2 will leave Kamo'oalewa on April 24, 2027, which is China's National Space Day next year. It will drop off a sample capsule in the Earth's atmosphere in late November 2027. The spacecraft itself won't stop. It will sling past Earth towards Comet 311P PanSTAR, for further observations. Stay tuned for updates from Kamo'oalewa. God bless, guys. Please give us a thumbs up and share.