One might expect astronomers to have found all the near-Earth asteroids and comets already. But that’s not the case. Some lurk in orbital spots that are hard to see, because discovering them requires looking straight into the sun. One such object, dubbed Kamo’oalewa, evaded detection until seven years ago—and its origin has always been mysterious. Until now.
Astronomers first spotted Kamo’oalewa with a telescope atop the Haleakala volcano on Maui, in the Hawaiian Islands, and they gave it a Hawaiian moniker that means “oscillating celestial object.” It’s considered a “quasi-satellite” of the Earth, since from here it looks like a constant, if faint, companion, like a distant moon. But it’s
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