A Chinese probe is set for a historic landing on asteroid Kamoʻoalewa, which may have exploded far from Earth’s moon after a violent impact millions of years ago.
China’s Tianwen-2 spacecraft began its one-year journey to a near-Earth asteroid on May 29, 2025. The spacecraft is expected to reach the asteroid in early July, collect a sample from Kamo’oalewa and send it back to Earth in a capsule.
If successful, the mission will mark China’s first asteroid sample return mission. The sample will help confirm the asteroid’s origin and piece together clues from the early history of the Solar System.
Earth’s quasi-moon
Kamo’oalewa was first discovered in 2016 by the Pan-STARRS 1 asteroid survey telescope in Haleakala, Hawaii. The space rock is 131 to 328 feet (40 to 100 meters) tall, about the size of the Statue of Liberty.
Kamo’oalewa does not reside in the main asteroid belt of the Solar System between Mars and Jupiter, but instead orbits its Sun closer to Earth than other asteroids (about 9 million miles from our planet). After its discovery, Kamo’oalewa (which translates to “oscillating celestial body” in Hawaiian) was found to be orbiting the Sun synchronously with Earth. This makes it one of Earth’s seven known quasi-moons.
Later observations also revealed that the spectra of the asteroid It matched that of the moon rocks From NASA’s Apollo mission. The discovery has led scientists to believe that Kamo’oalewa is actually a moon rock, an ancient fragment of the moon that was shattered by a large impact.
Enter Tianwen-2
Since its discovery, scientists have been fascinated by Kamo’oalewa because it may hold a piece of the Moon’s early history.
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) launched the Tianwen-2 mission to investigate the near-Earth asteroid and reveal its origin. Since launch, CNSA has shared little information about the spacecraft’s location and the exact date of the asteroid encounter.
Earlier this month it was the space shuttle is observed performs a series of small motion maneuvers that may have been used to set it up for its approach to the asteroid. After the rendezvous with Kamo’oalewa, the spacecraft will conduct several months of remote sensing observations to map the asteroid and determine a potential sample location. Planet society.
Tianwen-2 is equipped with 11 scientific instruments to probe the target and collect between 20 and 100 milligrams of material from Kamo’oalewa. The mission is expected to drop a capsule with material and return samples to Earth in April 2027 before departing to explore another asteroid.
The Tianwen-2 mission is also designed to flyby the main belt asteroid 311P/PANSTARRS. The second goal of the research is expected to be reached in 2035.
