A NEAR-EARTH ASTEROID MAY ACTUALLY BE A CHUNK OF THE MOON BLASTED INTO ORBIT!
SYFY
By
November 12, 2021
An asteroid a bit longer than a basketball court is following Earth around the Sun, and new research shows it may be a chunk of the Moon blasted off into space by a giant impact.
The asteroid is called (469219) Kamo’oalewa 2016 HO3. It’s a quasi-satellite of Earth, meaning its orbit is very similar to our home planet’s so it appears to follow Earth around the Sun. It doesn’t really orbit the Earth like the Moon does — it orbits the Sun, just like Earth does — but from certain frames of reference it appears to.