Chinese spacecraft beams back first image of Earth’s “mini moon” ^5%

Scientific American - By Claire Cameron - 7/6/2026, 1:30 PM

Optimism Bias 14.8% - Overconfidence Bias 11.7% - Negativity Bias 9.7%

A Chinese spacecraft on a mission to collect and return samples of a near-Earth asteroid beamed back its first image of its target. Called Kamo‘oalewa, the space rock loops by Earth, coming as close as 9 million miles and as far as 25 million miles from our planet. It’s a quasi-satellite, meaning it orbits the sun, but it sticks close to... more