So far, it has been detected that there is a mysterious tiny object that seems to always be following the Earth, where scientists have named it Kamo`oalewa. In a recent study, researchers concluded that perhaps this object was once part of the Moon.
Kamo`oalewa, which is not yet widely understood, belongs to the type of asteroid that orbits the Sun, but it is always close to Earth. Although quite close, at about 9 million miles, it is very faint, 4 million times darker than the faintest star visible to humans.
As quoted by us from the Independent, Kamo`oalewa can only be seen for a few weeks in April. Its small size means it can only be detected by one of the largest telescopes.
Well, scientists managed to determine the pattern of light coming from the back of Kamo`oalewa. They concluded that the spectrum of the light matched the rocks taken by NASA astronauts on the Apollo missions. So it is estimated, this object comes from the Moon.
However, it is not known how the process until Kamo`oalewa separated from the Moon. Moreover, this object may be the only asteroid originating from there so there is no comparison material at this time.
The movement of Kamo`oalewa in its orbit around the Sun is very similar to that of Earth. This is different from other types of asteroids so that it strengthens that this object is indeed sourced from the Moon.
"It's highly unlikely that these diverse near-Earth asteroids will spontaneously move like satellite orbits like this happened with Kamo'oalewa," said Renu Malhotra, one of the researchers on this phenomenon.
