Earth has had a traveling companion for millions of years, and we don’t know where it came from, but there’s a spacecraft ready to give us answers

A study comparing two origin scenarios for Earth’s coorbital Kamo'oalewa found an asteroid-belt source is more likely than a lunar one.

China has launched Tianwen-2 to collect samples from Kamo'oalewa and return them to Earth in 2027.

The returned material should confirm its composition and help settle the mystery of whether it is a captured asteroid or a lunar fragment.

Understanding Kamo'oalewa’s origin could shed light on how coorbitals form and what ancient impacts shaped the Earth-Moon system.