The asteroid 469,219 Kamo'oalewa or second moon.

A Chinese spacecraft is set to visit asteroid 469219 Kamo'oalewa to collect samples and bring them back to Earth. This asteroid is smaller, rarer, more intriguing, and more mysterious than Ryugu and Bennu. It likely differs from those two—which are essentially rubble piles from ancient planetoids, protoplanets, or large objects—because samples returned to Earth from the others contained clays formed in the presence of liquid water. The chemical composition suggests that this liquid water persisted for millions of years, acting upon the clays to trigger chemical reactions—specifically, oxidizing or removing iron.

This asteroid may be very different; for starters, it is not spherical like the one in this illustration, but rather elongated. In fact, some have described it as a monolith, implying it is a fairly solid block. Current data suggest dimensions of roughly 70 meters in length, 58 meters in width, and 52 meters in height. Proportionally, it resembles a giant shoebox—giant in the sense of being the size of a 20-story building—but one curious characteristic is its rapid rotation. It spins much faster than typical asteroids, indicating that it is not a rubble pile like the other two, but rather a solid, massive object.

Rapid rotation combined with an elongated shape usually indicates a metallic composition or, at the very least, a solid rocky block—a monolith. Small asteroids lack the gravitational pull to aggregate pieces of rock and dust into a single body; they form through other forces, such as magnetism. Consequently, if they spin too quickly, they literally disintegrate—unless they are a solid block, which appears to be the case here.

China is releasing information sparingly; we know the spacecraft has arrived—and according to observatories tracking the trajectories of both the asteroid and the craft, we know it arrived safely. However, entering orbit around this object is difficult because, as I mentioned earlier, it lacks gravity; everything relies on the spacecraft's engine power. When orbiting a planet like Mars or the Moon, you can utilize gravity to shape your trajectory and adjust your speed, but that isn't an option here—there is no gravity. It all depends on the raw power of the spacecraft's engine to approach the asteroid, make contact, and collect the sample.

Interestingly, it is believed that the asteroid originated from the Moon, as its light spectrum closely resembles that of lunar rocks. It is possible that it came from the Giordano Bruno crater—a fragment ejected by the impact of the asteroid that created that crater. If so, this asteroid might literally be a droplet of molten lava or rock flung into space by the collision that formed the crater, which would explain why it is a monolith—a single, solid block.

We will find out in a few days; I think the photos will be spectacular. We’ll be keeping a close watch, and I’ll share them with you, as the photos are expected to be released sometime between July 4th and July 6th.

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