Astronomer Ertnahar Asteroid: A piece of the worlds?

What about the mysterious asteroid Kamo’oalewa orbiting the sun in an Earth-like orbit? Analysis of its reflected light spectrum shows that the celestial body is now made up of moon-like objects. Scientists say Kamo’oalewa was created from fragments of a former asteroid impact on our satellite.

The Earth-Moon system moves in space around many small celestial bodies: in our solar system there is a famous community called the asteroids closest to Earth. Some of them travel in special orbits: they orbit the sun just like the earth. Hence they are called semi-satellites. Not much is known about these objects in close proximity to the Earth because they glow so weakly and are therefore difficult to observe.

In 2016, astronomers added the well-known semi-satellite Camo’Oleva: the PanSTARRS telescope in Hawaii was able to capture its best glow, four million times weaker than the faint stars that the human eye can make. Look at the night sky. According to the data, Kamo’oalewa is about 100 meters in diameter. It orbits the Sun in a slightly different orbit from the Earth and takes about a year to orbit. With the current galaxy, it always comes closest to Earth in April. The closest approximation is about 15 million kilometers.

Interesting patterns in dim shimmer

To learn more about Kamo’oalewa, researchers working with Benjamin Sharkey from the University of Arizona in Tucson looked at him closely. The Large Binocular Telescope and the Lowell Discovery Telescope located in Arizona were used. Their high sensitivity to light enables spectral analyzes of weak light reflected from the small celestial body. Based on the shape of the wavelengths, we were able to draw conclusions about the properties of certain objects and the signatures of the light spectrum of other celestial bodies, scientists explain.

According to them, the Kamo’oalewa compound is characterized by silicate substances. Scientists say a slight change in the red spectrum distinguishes Kamo’oalewa from known signatures from other asteroids in the inner solar system. “I looked at every asteroid spectrum close to Earth that was accessible to us, and none of them matched the results,” Sharkey says. Further comparisons, however, show that the patterns of light reflected from Camoleva correspond to those of lunar rocks, whose properties are known from models of NASA’s Apollo missions.

The debris of the moon?

As researchers explain, the discovery now highlights the possible appearance of the asteroid, especially its Earth-like orbit. “Kamo’Oleva’s reflection supports the interpretation that the spectrum is formed from debris from the moon,” the scientists write. In particular, an asteroid may once have hit the moon and thrown objects far away, from which Camoleva was formed.

Studies of the Kamo’oalewa orbit as part of the study support the asteroid formation in the Earth-Moon system. It differs only slightly in slope from the Earth and is a special orphan to the asteroids closest to the Earth. Renu Malhotra, associate professor at the University of Arizona, explains that “it is almost impossible for an ordinary asteroid near Earth to spontaneously go into a semi-satellite orbit like Camoleva.”

However, some questions about the interesting celestial body remain unanswered. That’s why astronomers want to keep track of him.

Source: University of Arizona, Articles: Contacts Earth and Environment, doi: 10.1038 / s43247-021-00303-7

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