China's Tianwen-2 intercepts a bizarre companion world, this week on Planetary Radio.

I'm Sarah al-Ahmad of the Planetary Society, with more of the human adventure across our solar system and beyond.

Earlier this month, China's Tian Wen-2 spacecraft arrived at Kamo-Aleva, a tiny, mysterious

quasi-satellite of Earth.

It may be a piece of the moon itself, or something else entirely.

I sat down with Andrew Jones, a freelance space journalist who covers the China National

Space Administration, to talk about Tian Wen to what we hope to learn from the samples it

returns to Earth, and where China's planetary exploration ambitions go from here.

Then Bruce Betts, our chief scientist here at the Planetary Society, joins me for What's Up.

With Asteroid Day just around the corner, we're going to be looking at some of the most exciting

asteroid moments through the end of this decade, from a flyby that's happening just next month to 2029,

when the asteroid Apophis passes closer to Earth than our geostationary satellites.

If you love planetary radio and want to stay informed about the latest

space discoveries, make sure you hit that subscribe button on your favorite podcasting platform.

By subscribing, you'll never miss an episode filled with new and awe-inspiring ways to know

the cosmos and our place within it.

Happy Almost Asteroid Day, everyone. June 30th marks this annual global event.

It's observed on the anniversary of the 1908 Tunguska impact, when a small asteroid or comet exploded over a remote region of Siberia with the energy of a large nuclear weapon.

It's a day to celebrate our growing understanding of these ancient travelers

and to reflect on why finding and studying them matters so much. Right now we're living through

the most extraordinary chapter in the history of asteroid science. In just the last few decades,

humanity has done something that would have seemed like science fiction just a generation ago.

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