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| A Ferris-Wheel-Size Chunk of the Moon is Orbiting Close to Earth
"If Kamo'oalewa is a piece of the smashed-up lunar surface, it's unclear what exactly kicked it loose, or how it ended up in its current orbit; no near-Earth object with a lunar origin has ever been detected before..." by Brandon Specktor via Live Science Headline Image caption/credit: An artist impression of Earth quasi-satellite Kamo`oalewa near the Earth-Moon system. (Image credit: Addy Graham/University of Arizona) The asteroid Kamo'oalewa passes within 9 million miles of Earth every April. It may have once been part of our moon. A small asteroid orbiting close to Earth could be a fragment of the moon that snapped off during an ancient impact, according to new research published Nov. 11 in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment. If confirmed, that would make the asteroid the first near-Earth object with a known lunar origin — and could help shed light on the chaotic history of our planet and its pockmarked companion, the researchers said. The asteroid in question is