469219 Kamoʻoalewa

Uncommon card · No. 180837

469219 Kamoʻoalewa (; provisional designation 2016 HO3) is a very small Apollo-type near-Earth asteroid approximately 27.4 meters (90 feet) in diameter. It is an elongated object that rapidly rotates every 28 minutes. At present it is a quasi-satellite of Earth, and currently the second-smallest, second-closest, and second most stable known such quasi-satellite (after 2023 FW13). Kamoʻoalewa was discovered by Pan-STARRS at Haleakala Observatory on 27 April 2016. It is the target of the China National Space Administration's Tianwen-2 mission, which arrived at the asteroid on July 4, 2026 and is intended to orbit the object for nine months before retrieving samples from the surface and returning them to Earth in 2027. The object's Earth-like orbit, proximity to the Earth–Moon system, higher spectral reddening relative to other asteroids, and similarity to space weathered lunar materials indicate that it is likely lunar ejecta. However, it might also be an S-type or L-type asteroid. Despite...

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