Tianwen-2 mission target asteroid (469219) Kamoʻoalewa probably develops an Itokawa-compositional but more space-weathered surface

China’s ongoing Tianwen-2 mission will return samples from a small, rapidly spinning Earth quasi-satellite (469219) Kamoʻoalewa. Previous studies linked Kamoʻoalewa to lunar composition and origin. Here, we propose another scenario. We reanalyze the reflectance spectrum of Kamoʻoalewa and obtain an absorption band center at 1.001 ± 0.028 μm (error is 1σ), consistent with LL chondrites. We then conduct space weathering experiments on meteorites and find that highly space-weathered LL chondrite powder (but not slab) successfully reproduces the reflectance spectrum of Kamoʻoalewa. We further trace the dynamical origin of Kamoʻoalewa and find that it probably originated from the ν6 secular resonance, and more specifically, the Flora family. Kamoʻoalewa exhibits a similar composition to Itokawa and 7 objects in the Flora family, but with a higher degree of space weathering. We, therefore, propose that Kamoʻoalewa probably originated from the Flora family and developed an Itokawa-compositional, more space-weathered, fine-regolith-dominated surface. The origin of asteroid (469219) Kamo‘oalewa, target of China’s Tianwen-2 mission, is debated. Here, the authors show that it probably originated from the Flora family and it resembles asteroid (25143) Itokawa-like composition but with a more space-weathered surface.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature Communications
Published
2026-05-27
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-73284-w
Primary Topic
Astro and Planetary Science
Type
article
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article

Tianwen-2 mission target asteroid (469219) Kamoʻoalewa probably develops an Itokawa-compositional but more space-weathered surface

X M Wang, T. Hiroi, Marco Fenucci, Wen-Han Zhou et al.
Nature Communications
Astro and Planetary Science
article

Tianwen-2 mission target asteroid (469219) Kamoʻoalewa probably develops an Itokawa-compositional but more space-weathered surface

X M Wang, T. Hiroi, Marco Fenucci, Wen-Han Zhou, Xiaoran Yan, Pengyue Wang, B H Cheng, Yu Zhang, Michaël Marsset, Jooyeon Geem, Sizhe Zhao, Te Jiang, C. Lantz, Q Zhang, Yunbo Niu, Xi Zhang, Guozheng Zhang, Ronghua Pang, Hu S, Zichen Wei, Liyong Zhou, Shijei Li, H B Zhao, Francesca DeMeo, Wei Yang, Juntao Wang, Wing-Huen Ip, Xuejin Lu, Honglei Lin, Edward Cloutis, Guang Zhang, Yangting Lin, Pierre Vernazza, Jiahui Liu, Xiaoping Lu, Xiongyao Li, Peng Zhang, Jiang Zhang, Yang Li, Xing Wu, Zongcheng Ling, Mikael Granvik, Pierre Beck, Zhiping He, Pengfei Zhang
article en

Abstract

China’s ongoing Tianwen-2 mission will return samples from a small, rapidly spinning Earth quasi-satellite (469219) Kamoʻoalewa. Previous studies linked Kamoʻoalewa to lunar composition and origin. Here, we propose another scenario. We reanalyze the reflectance spectrum of Kamoʻoalewa and obtain an absorption band center at 1.001 ± 0.028 μm (error is 1σ), consistent with LL chondrites. We then conduct space weathering experiments on meteorites and find that highly space-weathered LL chondrite powder (but not slab) successfully reproduces the reflectance spectrum of Kamoʻoalewa. We further trace the dynamical origin of Kamoʻoalewa and find that it probably originated from the ν6 secular resonance, and more specifically, the Flora family. Kamoʻoalewa exhibits a similar composition to Itokawa and 7 objects in the Flora family, but with a higher degree of space weathering. We, therefore, propose that Kamoʻoalewa probably originated from the Flora family and developed an Itokawa-compositional, more space-weathered, fine-regolith-dominated surface. The origin of asteroid (469219) Kamo‘oalewa, target of China’s Tianwen-2 mission, is debated. Here, the authors show that it probably originated from the Flora family and it resembles asteroid (25143) Itokawa-like composition but with a more space-weathered surface.

Nature Communications
Macau University of Science and Technology (MO), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), European Southern Observatory (DE), University of Helsinki (FI), Shandong University (CN), Chongqing University (CN), Université Joseph Fourier (FR), Luleå University of Technology (SE), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Aix-Marseille Université (FR), National Central University (TW), Université Paris-Saclay (FR), Brown University (US), Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (CN), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Galileo Galilei Institute for Theoretical Physics (IT), Yunnan Observatories (CN), Purple Mountain Observatory (CN), China University of Geosciences (CN), Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization (CN), Nello Carrara Institute of Applied Physics (IT), Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille (FR), Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale (FR), Guangzhou Vocational College of Science and Technology (CN), Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble (FR), National Space Science Center (CN), Institute of Geology and Geophysics (CN), Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics (CN), Institute of Geochemistry (CN), Astronomy and Space (AU), Ospedale San Giuseppe (IT), European Space Research Institute (IT), Taiyuan University of Science and Technology (CN), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US), The University of Tokyo (JP), The University of Winnipeg (CA), Université Grenoble Alpes (FR), Taiyuan University of Technology (CN), Tsinghua University (CN)
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