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Spectral data suggest that Kamo‘oalewa, a near-Earth asteroid, has a composition similar to lunar rocks.

Near-Earth objects are fragments of rock that orbit the Sun along paths that remain close to Earth. Researchers study these objects to assess their threat level but also to improve our understanding of the solar system. Most of these objects are difficult to measure, but one asteroid, Kamo‘oalewa, maintains a stable orbit and makes a regular pass of Earth every April, opening a window to study this chunk of rock in greater detail.

A team of researchers at the University of Arizona have evaluated spectral data collected over several years and have determined that Kamo‘oalewa may actually be a fragment of the Moon. The results of the study were published last month in Nature Communications Earth and Environment.

“What was supposed to be a quick one-and-done summer project turned out to be way more interesting,” said Benjamin Sharkey, a graduate student in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona and lead author on the paper. “As we keep pushing discoveries to fainter things in different parts of the sky, it is exciting to open new populations [of objects] to characterize,” he said. Such analysis allows scientists “to rewind time to explain how the solar system formed and evolved.”

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