China takes a close-up view of Earth's "mini-moon" for the first time
The Chinese spacecraft Tianwen-2 captured the first close-up images of the asteroid Kamua'aliwa, known as the "mini-moon" or "semi-moon" of the Earth, after a journey that took about 13 months since its launch in May 2025.
Planet Earth has an interesting space "neighborhood" that is not limited to the Moon alone, including the asteroid known as Kamua'alewa or 2016 HO3, which astronomers describe as a "mini-moon" or, more precisely, a "quasi-moon."
The Chinese National Space Administration launched the Tianwen-2 spacecraft on May 29, 2025 as part of a mission to retrieve samples from an asteroid, and the spacecraft arrived after a journey that took about 13 months to... The asteroid Kamua'alewa has been observing it since July 2 from a distance of about 20 kilometers.
Kamualewa is not considered a real moon of the Earth from a technical standpoint, as it revolves mainly around the sun and not around the Earth. But its stay for long periods in near-Earth orbit and its movement in a way that appears to be oscillating around our planet makes it fall within the classification of “semi-moons.”
أُنتج هذا الخبر بمساعدة الترجمة الآلية ثم خضع لمراجعة تحريرية بشرية للتحقّق من الدقّة والمصدر.

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