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.
Zhang et al. (Wed,) studied this question.