🐈‍⬛ Emmaline, Segrentarri of Snakkies and👵🏼Jean, her human

@jeanchimera.bsky.social

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Cats, some politics, Ukraine, Science, other randomness. | #PlunderCats 🏴‍☠️ | Ally 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 | NAFO

Cats sitting in the passenger compartment of a plane

A variety of cats sitting in the passenger section of a 747. One of the cats is in the galley, stowing food.

Cowcat in loaf on the floor with a crocheted pickle toy right up against her chest.

CHINA HAS REACHED EARTH'S MINI-MOON: Everyone knows that Earth has a Moon. But did you know that it also has a mini-Moon? This week, a spacecraft from China pulled up alongside it.

On July 6th, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced that its Tianwen-2 probe has arrived at asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, a space rock that loops around our planet about once per year.

Snapped from about 20 km away, this 'first contact' photo reveals a house-sized body tumbling once every 28 minutes. That means it's probably a solid object, not a rubble pile that would easily spin apart.

Kamoʻoalewa is not a true moon. It is a "quasi-satellite," tracing lazy corkscrews around Earth while actually orbiting the sun in near-lockstep with our planet. Discovered by the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii in 2016, its name comes from a Hawaiian chant and means, roughly, "oscillating celestial fragment."

This isn't Earth's only mini-Moon; there are at least 7 others. However, Kamoʻoalewa stands out as the most stable. It is expected to remain a quasi-satellite for centuries. That stability made it an attractive target for China's growing space program.

three kitties resting peacefully on a chair/couch