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arXiv · 2405.20411

Asteroid Kamo`oalewa's journey from the lunar Giordano Bruno crater to Earth 1:1 resonance

Yifei Jiao·Bin Cheng·Yukun Huang·Erik Asphaug·Brett Gladman·Renu Malhotra·Patrick Michel·Yang Yu·Hexi Baoyin
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Abstract

Among the nearly 30,000 known near-Earth asteroids (NEAs), only tens of them possess Earth co-orbital characteristics with semi-major axes $\sim$1 au. In particular, 469219 Kamo`oalewa (2016 HO3), upcoming target of China's Tianwen-2 asteroid sampling mission, exhibits a meta-stable 1:1 mean-motion resonance with Earth. Intriguingly, recent ground-based observations show that Kamo`oalewa has spectroscopic characteristics similar to space-weathered lunar silicates, hinting at a lunar origin instead of an asteroidal one like the vast majority of NEAs. Here we use numerical simulations to demonstrate that Kamo`oalewa's physical and orbital properties are compatible with a fragment from a crater larger than 10--20 km formed on the Moon in the last few million years. The impact could have ejected sufficiently large fragments into heliocentric orbits, some of which could be transferred to Earth 1:1 resonance and persist today. This leads us to suggest the young lunar crater Giordano Bruno (22 km diameter, 1--10 Ma age) as the most likely source, linking a specific asteroid in space to its source crater on the Moon. The hypothesis will be tested by the Tianwen-2 mission when it returns a sample of Kamo`oalewa. And the upcoming NEO Surveyor mission will possibly help us to identify such a lunar-derived NEA population.

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Yifei Jiao, Bin Cheng, Yukun Huang, Erik Asphaug, Brett Gladman, Renu Malhotra, Patrick Michel, Yang Yu, Hexi Baoyin. 2024-05-30. Asteroid Kamo`oalewa's journey from the lunar Giordano Bruno crater to Earth 1:1 resonance. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-024-02258-z

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