Close Menu
Technology Mag

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

    What's Hot

    It’s Been a Weak Prime Day for Gaming Laptops, With This Exception

    July 9, 2025

    Apple’s second-generation Vision Pro might launch this year

    July 9, 2025

    The Columbia hack is a much bigger deal than Mamdani’s college application

    July 9, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Subscribe
    Technology Mag
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube
    • Home
    • News
    • Business
    • Games
    • Gear
    • Reviews
    • Science
    • Security
    • Trending
    • Press Release
    Technology Mag
    Home » This Chinese Spacecraft Is Traveling to One of Earth’s Quasi-Moons
    Science

    This Chinese Spacecraft Is Traveling to One of Earth’s Quasi-Moons

    News RoomBy News RoomJune 17, 20253 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp Email

    The China National Space Administration has shared the first image from its Tianwen-2 probe, which is en route to Kamo‘oalewa, a near-Earth asteroid.

    The image was captured by a camera onboard the probe, which is currently more than 3 million kilometers from Earth, and shows one of its wings with its solar panels deployed. It is also the first glimpse the CNSA has offered of its space probe, which launched on May 29 on a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Zeyuan Town, China. The design of Tianwen-2’s panels is similar in appearance to those on Lucy, NASA’s space probe that is exploring asteroids floating near Jupiter. These serve to meet the power demands required for the trip.

    Tianwen-2’s mission is to land on the surface of Kamo‘oalewa, collect samples, and return to Earth. The spacecraft is scheduled to land on the asteroid’s surface in July 2026. Before then, it will spend several months studying Kamo‘oalewa from a safe distance, to determine its sampling area, before proceeding with landing maneuvers, a particularly difficult task given the asteroid’s low gravity.

    Once the samples have been collected, Tianwen-2 will travel back to Earth and send its samples down to the surface in a capsule, before then attempting to use Earth’s gravity as a slingshot to head toward 311P/PanSTARRS, an unusual-looking asteroid beyond Mars that has some of the characteristics of a comet, including visible tails. Tianwen-2 is expected to conduct this mission until 2035.

    The Enigma of the Hawaiian Quasi-Moon

    Kamo‘oalewa is one of Earth’s seven known quasi-moons—objects that appear to be orbiting our planet, but which aren’t actually gravitationally bound to Earth, and are actually asteroids circling the sun in an orbit similar to Earth’s.

    Discovered in 2016 by astronomers at the Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii, Kamo‘oalewa—whose name means “oscillating celestial object” in Hawaiian—is located approximately 4.65 million kilometers from our planet, 12 times further away from Earth than the moon. Kamo‘oalewa is estimated to be roughly 40 to 100 meters in diameter, has maintained its current orbit for 100 years, and will probably maintain it for 300 more.

    It’s hoped that Tianwen-2 can solve the mystery of Kamo‘oalewa’s origin. One theory is that it’s a chunk of rock that broke off from the moon millions of years ago. The sampling mission will help multiple scientific investigations into the composition of rocky celestial bodies, as well as aid scientists in the search for clues about the formation of the solar system.

    Observational evidence and modeling suggest that Kamo‘oalewa has been orbiting the sun for millions of years, albeit with an unstable trajectory. A direct exploration of this asteroid could, in addition, expand knowledge about nearby celestial objects that might potentially pose a threat to Earth.

    This story originally appeared on WIRED en Español and has been translated from Spanish.

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
    Previous ArticleAmazon Prime Day stretches to four days of deals this year
    Next Article OpenAI awarded $200 million US defense contract

    Related Posts

    How the Binding of Two Brain Molecules Creates Memories That Last a Lifetime

    July 9, 2025

    Meteorologists Say the National Weather Service Did Its Job in Texas

    July 9, 2025

    Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Would Leave Millions Without Health Insurance

    July 8, 2025

    Is It Time to Stop Protecting the Grizzly Bear?

    July 7, 2025

    India Is Using AI and Satellites to Map Urban Heat Vulnerability Down to the Building Level

    July 7, 2025

    How to Travel to the Most Remote Office on Earth

    July 6, 2025
    Our Picks

    Apple’s second-generation Vision Pro might launch this year

    July 9, 2025

    The Columbia hack is a much bigger deal than Mamdani’s college application

    July 9, 2025

    Trump Officials Want to Prosecute Over the ICEBlock App. Lawyers Say That’s Unconstitutional

    July 9, 2025

    This Prime Day TV Deal Brings Your Eyes Into 2025

    July 9, 2025
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    • Vimeo
    Don't Miss
    News

    The best 4K TV deals during Prime Day 2025

    By News RoomJuly 9, 2025

    Let me try to read your mind. You’re thinking of getting a new TV, yes,…

    Grok Is Spewing Antisemitic Garbage on X

    July 9, 2025

    The Bezos-funded climate satellite is lost in space

    July 9, 2025

    Perplexity just launched an AI web browser

    July 9, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of use
    • Advertise
    • Contact
    © 2025 Technology Mag. All Rights Reserved.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.