Spaceborne Artifacts Traversing Earth's Orbital Path Raise Questions: Could They Be remnants from the Moon?
In an exciting development for space exploration, new research has bolstered the hypothesis that Earth's co-orbital bodies, objects that orbit the Sun while being influenced by Earth's gravity, may have origins beyond the asteroid belt.
The focus of this research is Kamo'oalewa, one of Earth's closest and most stable quasi-satellites. Measuring approximately 40 to 100 meters in diameter, Kamo'oalewa has spectral characteristics remarkably similar to space-weathered lunar basalt, leading many scientists to speculate that it could be a fragment of the Moon.
Rafael Sfair and his colleagues have conducted simulations to explore the conditions required for lunar ejecta to develop into co-orbital bodies of Earth. Their findings suggest that material blasted off near the Moon's trailing side and close to the equator has a high probability of being captured into co-orbital or quasi-satellite orbits around Earth. This scenario is particularly compelling given the belief that the crater Giordano Bruno, approximately 22 km wide on the Moon's far side, formed relatively recently and coincides with the possible timing for the fragment's ejection.
If true, this means that some of Earth's nearby quasi-satellites and temporary minimoon companions may have originated not from the asteroid belt but from lunar ejecta following impact events. The Chinese Tianwen-2 mission, launched in May 2025 to retrieve samples from Kamo'oalewa, may provide definitive evidence by 2028 through direct analysis.
It's important to note that Earth has a number of tiny co-orbital bodies, objects that orbit the Sun while being influenced by Earth's gravity and shadowing our planet closely. Most of these co-orbital objects are likely near-Earth asteroids. However, the spectral similarity between Kamo'oalewa and the lunar surface suggests that it could potentially be a fragment of the Moon blasted off by a large asteroid impact and then caught as a quasi-satellite.
Objects on a 'horseshoe' or 'tadpole' orbit are repeatedly accelerated and decelerated by Earth's gravity, and four known bodies are currently on such orbits. Five quasi-satellites, including Kamo'oalewa, and four objects flip-flopping between quasi-satellite and horseshoe orbits are also part of Earth's co-orbital family.
This new research, published in the August 2025 issue of a certain website, adds to our understanding of the cosmic neighbourhood around Earth and opens up exciting possibilities for future exploration. The article can be read online at arxiv.org/abs/2505.09066.
[1] arXiv:2505.09066 [astro-ph.EP] [2] Sfair, R., et al. (2025). The Origin of Earth's Co-orbital Bodies: A Lunar Connection. arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.09066. [3] Giordano Bruno Crater, Moon.nasa.gov, https://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/giordano_bruno.html [4] Kamo'oalewa, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamo%CA%BBoalewa [5] Tianwen-2, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianwen-2
- The latest research in the field of space-and-astronomy has proposed a potential link between Earth's co-orbital bodies and environmental-science, suggesting that some of these bodies could be fragments of the Moon, causing a fascinating intersection of health-and-wellness (the Moon being a part of Earth's system) and science.
- The findings of the study also imply significant implications for the field of scientific research, particularly in environmental-science and health-and-wellness, as they may provide insights into the Moon's composition and the effects of large impact events on Earth's co-orbital bodies.
