Tianwen-2 Arrives at Target Asteroid Kamoʻoalewa

Tianwen-2 arrives at target asteroid Kamoʻoalewa

China's asteroid sample-return probe has closed to within 20 kilometers of 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, kicking off its science campaign — just as new evidence complicates the leading theory of the rock's origin.

After a Billion Kilometres, China's Asteroid Hunter Finally Arrives

After chasing a small asteroid across a billion kilometres of space, China's Tianwen-2 probe has finally caught up, closing to within twenty kilometres of its target and beginning detailed scientific study. What it uncovers next could help settle a genuinely intriguing question, whether this quiet companion of Earth is simply another asteroid, or a long lost piece of the Moon itself.

China’s Tianwen-2 spacecraft chased Earth’s tiny quasi-moon for 400 days and 1 billion kilometres — but just as it returned the first close-up image, new evidence challenged the leading theory that Kamoʻoalewa is a fragment blasted from the Moon

China’s Tianwen-2 spacecraft has reached Kamoʻoalewa and returned the first close-range image of the small asteroid that keeps pace with Earth. The picture, taken from about 20 kilometres away on 2 July 2026, shows an uneven, angular body only a few tens of metres across. The arrival came after roughly 400 days and a cumulative flight path of about 1 billion kilometres, according to a 6 July announcement from the China National Space Administrat…