Earth’s ‘second moon’ pictured for the first time

An artist’s impression of 469219 Kamo’oalewa (Picture: Sharkey et al./Nature Communications/University of Arizona)

Earth’s second moon is ready for its close-up.

China has shared the first-ever photograph of 469219 Kamo’oalewa, Hawaiian for ‘wobbling celestial object’.

Known to scientists as 2016HO3, the unusual near-Earth asteroid loops around the blue marble but is actually gravitationally bound to the sun.

Experts suspect this space rock is a piece of the lunar surface torn off by a meteor impact, so it could be a time capsule for the early solar system.

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