This Chinese spatial vehicle is traveling to one of the almost-motions of the earth

National China The administration of the space shared the first image from its Tianwen-2 probe, which is traveling to Kamo’oalewa, an asteroid near the earth.

The image was captured by a camera aboard the probe, which is currently more than 3 million kilometers from the earth, and shows one of its wings with its solar panels lined up. It is also the first glance that the CNSA offered of its space probe, which was launched on May 29 in a 3B rocket in the long March by the Xichang satellite Launch Center of Zeyuan Town, in China. The design of the Tianwen-2 panels is similar in appearance to those on Lucy, the NASA spatial probe that is exploring the asteroids that float near Jupiter. These serve to meet the requests for power required for the trip.

The Tianwen-2 mission is to land on the surface of Kamo’oalewa, to collect champions and return to Earth. The space vehicle should land on the surface of the asteroid in July 2026. Before then, it will spend several months to study Kamo’oalewa from a safety distance, to determine its sampling area, before proceeding with landing maneuvers, a particularly difficult task given the low severity of the asteroid.

Once the champions are collected, Tianwen-2 will return to Earth and keep his samples on the surface in a capsule, before trying to use the severity of the earth as a slingshot to head towards 311p/Panstarr, an unusual aspect asteroid as well as Mars who have some of the characteristics of a comet, including visible queues. Tianwen-2 should lead this mission until 2035.

The enigma of the Hawaiian almost-moon

Kamo’oalewa is one of the seven of the land known almost-moons—Objects that seem to orbit our planet in orbit, but which in reality are not gravitationally linked to the earth and in reality they are asteroids that surround the sun in an orbit similar to that of the earth.

Discovered in 2016 by the astronomers at the Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii, Kamo’oalewa – whose name means “obsciating the celestial object” in Hawaiian – is located about 4.65 million kilometers from our planet, 12 times further from the earth compared to the moon. It is estimated that Kamo’oalewa is about 40 to 100 meters in diameter, has maintained its current orbit for 100 years and probably maintains it for another 300.

It is hoped that Tianwen-2 can solve the mystery of the origin of Kamo’oalewa. A theory It is that it is a piece of rock that stopped from the moon millions of years ago. The sampling mission will help multiple scientific investigations on the composition of rocky celestial bodies, as well as scientists in the search for clues on the formation of the Solar System.

The observational tests and modeling suggest that Kamo’oalewa has orbit the sun for millions of years in orbit, although with an unstable trajectory. A direct exploration of this asteroid could also expand the knowledge of the heavenly neighbors who could potentially represent a threat to the earth.

This story originally appeared on Wired en español And it was translated by the Spaniard.