Chinese researchers have caught Earth's second moon, Kamoʻoalewa, on camera up close for the first time ever. axivan.com - stock.adobe.com This rock star is ready for its extreme close-up. Chinese researchers have captured the first-ever close-up images of the rare “mini-moon” that’s tracing circles around the Earth. Dubbed 2016 HO3 or Kamoʻoalewa, this interstellar rolling stone is not actually one of our lunar satellites – it’s too distant for that — but rather an asteroid that’s circumnavigating the sun, Science Alert reported. A diagram depicting our “second moon’s” unusual orbit. NASA/JPL Caltech However, as this space rock comes in relative close proximity to our home planet via our elliptical orbit every 45 years, astronomers consider it a “quasi-satellite” – just one of seven known