China's Tianwen-2 captures first close-up of Earth's quasi-moon, but sampling may be trickier than hoped

China's Tianwen-2 spacecraft has delivered the first close-up image of Earth's quasi-moon Kamo'oalewa (2016 HO3) after a roughly 400-day journey, suggesting a small, rubble-pile asteroid around 40–100 meters in size and signaling that planned sample collection could be more difficult than expected. If successful, any samples would be returned to Earth in 2027, making China the third country to achieve asteroid sample return; the mission will later pivot to a second target, 311P/PanSTARRS, in 2035.