The moon splits in two, giving birth to a 'third moon' for Earth?

Kamo'oalewa, Earth's "third moon", or more accurately a "half-moon", may have emerged from the giant Giordano Bruno impact crater .

Using numerical simulations, a team led by astronomer Yifei Jiao of Tsinghua University in China identified Kamo'oalewa's "homeland": the Giordano Bruno impact crater on the Moon .

Before that, Kamo'oalewa, an asteroid that suddenly appeared in 2016, confused scientists.

The Giordano Bruno impact crater is on the dark side of the Moon, which is the hemisphere that does not face the Earth - (Photo: NASA)

This asteroid does not orbit Earth in the same way as the only official natural satellite named the Moon. Instead, it completes one revolution around the Sun in 366 days, roughly coinciding with Earth's rotation period.

This makes it appear as if it is orbiting the Earth, thus being considered a "half-Moon" of the globe.

It is called "The 3rd Moon" because before it, an asteroid named 2023 FW13 was also discovered that had silently orbited Earth for thousands of years and only left after about 3,700 years, so it was nicknamed is the "Second Moon".

At the end of 2023, a research team from the University of Arizona (USA) demonstrated that Kamo'oalewa's composition is similar to the Moon, so it is very possible that a piece of the Moon broke off in the collision.

The new study by Dr. Jiao and his colleagues continues and contributes to proving that hypothesis by creating an impact model to infer the type of impact needed, the size of the impact crater left on the Moon, as well as a number of other related factors.

All models point to Giordano Bruno.

The impact crater is 22km across and less than 10 million years old, matching the University of Arizona's estimate that Kamo'oalewa is only a few million years old.

'It is clear that the largest, youngest craters are the more likely sources, as they produce more escaped debris, which remains in space. Giordano Bruno is the only crater that can meet the criteria" - the authors from Tsinghua University wrote.

The pyroxene composition around the crater wall and rim is similar to that of Kamo'oalewa.

It is estimated that up to 400 pieces the size of Kamo'oalewa would have been ejected from the site by the impact of an asteroid just 1.66 kilometers in diameter.

Most of this debris will be ejected from space around the Earth or in orbit with the Earth in about 10 million years, but there can be exceptions. Kamo'oalewa is that exception.

More accurate evidence is still needed to confirm, but humanity has a great opportunity: Certainly on Earth there are still scattered some lunar meteorites related to Giordano Bruno.