Asteroid linked to crater on the Moon

Kamo‘oalewa is a quasi-moon, temporarily in orbit around Earth

In a landmark study, an asteroid has been linked to an impact crater on the Moon which is believed to have created it. The new analysis found that asteroid Kamo‘oalewa, a ‘quasi-moon’ that moves in and out of orbit around Earth, was probably hurled into space from the Giordano Bruno crater. Kamo‘oalewa is similar in appearance to lunar rock, which, along with its orbit, suggests it could have started life on the Moon. To test this theory, the study simulated the impact needed to launch a space rock like Kamo‘oalewa into orbit and found the resulting lunar crater would be 10–20km wide and 10 million or so years old. The four-million-year-old 22km-wide (14-mile) Giordano Bruno is the only lunar crater to fit those criteria. “For 50 years, we have been…

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BBC Sky at Night United Kingdom (Digital) - 1 Issue, July 2024

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