{"id":60440,"date":"2024-06-18T05:53:33","date_gmt":"2024-06-18T05:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/636b3c15-cdb1-473a-90b1-42a51cdcfe51"},"modified":"2024-06-18T06:39:56","modified_gmt":"2024-06-18T06:39:56","slug":"known-asteroid-was-hurled-into-space-during-collision-that-formed-a-large-impact-crater-on-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/known-asteroid-was-hurled-into-space-during-collision-that-formed-a-large-impact-crater-on-the-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Known asteroid was hurled into space during collision that formed a large impact crater on the Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Ezzy Pearson\n <\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 18 June 2024 at 05:53 AM<\/p>

\n\n

In a landmark study, an asteroid has been linked to an impact crater on the Moon which is believed to have created it.<\/p>

The new analysis found that asteroid Kamo\u2018oalewa, a \u2018quasi-moon\u2019 that moves in and out of orbit around Earth, was probably hurled into space from the Giordano Bruno crater.<\/p>

Kamo’oalewa has existed for several million years and is one of Earth\u2019s co-orbital asteroids<\/a>, which means it orbits the Sun on a similar path as Earth.<\/p>

It measures between 150 and 190 feet in diameter and is due to be studied very soon, having been selected as the target of China\u2019s Tianwen-2 mission.<\/p>

A Long March rocket lifting off from Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province, 29 April 2021. Photo by STR \/ AFP) \/ China OUT via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Kamo\u2018oalewa lunar origins<\/strong><\/h2>
Kamo\u2018oalewa is similar in appearance to lunar rock, which, along with its orbit, suggests it could have originated from the Moon.<\/p>
To test this theory, the study simulated the impact needed to launch a space rock like Kamo\u2018oalewa into orbit and found the resulting lunar crater would be 10\u201320km wide and 10 million or so years old.<\/p>
The four-million-year-old 22km-wide (14-mile) Giordano Bruno is the only lunar crater to fit those criteria.<\/p>
“For 50 years, we have been studying rocks collected by astronauts on the surface of the Moon, as well as hundreds of small lunar meteorites that were ejected randomly by asteroid impacts from all over the Moon and ended up on Earth,” says Erik Asphaug from Arizona University, who worked on the study.<\/p>
“Kamo\u2018oalewa is kind of a missing link that connects the two.”<\/p>
$\"Asteroid$
Asteroid Kamo’oalewa, the target of China\u2019s upcoming Tianwen-2 mission, likely was blasted from the Giordano Bruno crater on the far side of the moon, as seen here by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Crater: NASA\/Goddard\/Arizona State University<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Kamo\u2018oalewa and panspermia<\/strong><\/h2>
What’s more, the event could have implications for what we know about the possibility for life to spread across the Galaxy.<\/p>
Asphaug says the model shows how massive rocks might be thrown from the surface of a planetary body and survive intact<\/p>
This links into the theory of panspermia<\/a>, which demonstrates how life \u2013 or its ingredients \u2013 could be delivered to worlds from other regions across space.<\/p>
$\"Panspermia$
Panspermia is the theory that life could begin on one planetary body and then be transported to another. Illustration by Tobias Roetsch\/Future Publishing via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>
:While Kamo’oalewa comes from a lifeless planet, it demonstrates how rocks ejected from Mars could carry life \u2013 at least in principle,” he says.<\/p>
“The Giordano Bruno impact probably produced tens of hundreds of 10-meter-size ejecta fragments into space,” says lead study author Yifei Jiao, a visting scholar at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory who is a doctoral student at Tsinghua University in Beijing.<\/p>
“While most of that debris would have impacted the Earth as lunar meteorites over the course of less than a million years,” he said, “a few lucky objects can survive in heliocentric orbits as near-Earth asteroids, yet to be discovered or identified.”<\/p>
**www.news.arizona.edu\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n**
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By Ezzy Pearson Published: Tuesday, 18 June 2024 at 05:53 AM In a landmark study, an asteroid has been linked to an impact crater on the Moon which is believed to have created it. The new analysis found that asteroid Kamo\u2018oalewa, a \u2018quasi-moon\u2019 that moves in and out of orbit around Earth, was probably hurled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":60441,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/06\/known-asteroid-was-hurled-into-space-during-collision-that-formed-a-large-impact-crater-on-the-moon.jpg",1200,1200,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/06\/known-asteroid-was-hurled-into-space-during-collision-that-formed-a-large-impact-crater-on-the-moon-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/06\/known-asteroid-was-hurled-into-space-during-collision-that-formed-a-large-impact-crater-on-the-moon-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/06\/known-asteroid-was-hurled-into-space-during-collision-that-formed-a-large-impact-crater-on-the-moon-768x768.jpg",768,768,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/06\/known-asteroid-was-hurled-into-space-during-collision-that-formed-a-large-impact-crater-on-the-moon-1024x1024.jpg",800,800,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/06\/known-asteroid-was-hurled-into-space-during-collision-that-formed-a-large-impact-crater-on-the-moon.jpg",1200,1200,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/06\/known-asteroid-was-hurled-into-space-during-collision-that-formed-a-large-impact-crater-on-the-moon.jpg",1200,1200,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Ezzy Pearson Published: Tuesday, 18 June 2024 at 05:53 AM In a landmark study, an asteroid has been linked to an impact crater on the Moon which is believed to have created it. The new analysis found that asteroid Kamo\u2018oalewa, a \u2018quasi-moon\u2019 that moves in and out of orbit around Earth, was probably hurled…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/60440"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}