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Kamo'oalewa
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The size of Kamo'oalewa has not yet been firmly established, but it is likely that it is approximately 40-to-100 meters (130–330 feet).Based on an assumed standard albedo for stony S-type asteroids of 0.20 and an absolute magnitude of 24.3, it measures 41 meters (135 ft) in diameter. Photometric observations in April 2017 revealed that Kamoʻoalewa is a fast rotator. Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 0.467 ± 0.008 hours (28.02 ± 0.48 minutes) and a brightness variation of 0.80±0.05 magnitude (U=2). In 2021, a comprehensive physical characterization of Kamoʻoalewa was conducted using the Large Binocular Telescope and the Lowell Discovery Telescope, which found that the asteroid is composed of lunar-like silicates and may be an impact fragment from the Moon.
During the 2017 Astrodynamics Specialist Conference held in Stevenson in the U.S. state of Washington, a team composed of graduate research assistants from the University of Colorado Boulder and the São Paulo State University (UNESP) was awarded for presenting a project denominated "Near-Earth Asteroid Characterization and Observation (NEACO) Mission to Asteroid (469219) 2016 HO3", providing the first baselines for the investigation of this celestial object using a spacecraft. Recently, another version of this work was presented adopting different constraints in the dynamics.
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) is planning a robotic mission that would return samples from Kamoʻoalewa. Currently, this mission, via ZhengHe, is planned to launch in 2025.
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(Dettagli)
