Financial Gazette
  • Science
  • Global

As Rubin's survey gets underway, simulations suggest it could find about six lunar-origin asteroids per year

  • February 2, 2026 at 5:18 PM
  • 1 views
As Rubin's survey gets underway, simulations suggest it could find about six lunar-origin asteroids per year
Most near-Earth asteroids are thought to drift in from the main asteroid belt. But a small subset may have a much closer origin: the moon. One intriguing example is 469219 Kamoʻoalewa (2016 HO3), an Earth quasi-satellite whose reported spectrum resembles lunar material and which is a target of China's Tianwen-2 sample-return mission.

Originally published at Phys.org

Share: