After a Billion Kilometres, China's Asteroid Hunter Finally Arrives

Kamoʻoalewa, also known as 2016 HO3, a small near-Earth asteroid and quasi-satellite of Earth, now the target of China's Tianwen-2 sample return mission (Credit : NASA/JPL-Caltech)

After chasing a small asteroid across a billion kilometres of space, China's Tianwen-2 probe has finally caught up, closing to within twenty kilometres of its target and beginning detailed scientific study. What it uncovers next could help settle a genuinely intriguing question, whether this quiet companion of Earth is simply another asteroid, or a long lost piece of the Moon itself.

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