Tianwen-2 mission target asteroid (469219) Kamo'oalewa probably develops an Itokawa-compositional but more...

China's ongoing Tianwen-2 mission will return samples from a small, rapidly spinning Earth quasi-satellite (469219) Kamo'oalewa. Previous studies linked Kamo'oalewa to lunar composition and origin. Here, we propose another scenario. We reanalyze the reflectance spectrum of Kamo'oalewa 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 Kamo'oalewa. We further trace the dynamical origin of Kamo'oalewa and find that it probably originated from the ν₆ secular resonance, and more specifically, the Flora family. Kamo'oalewa 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 Kamo'oalewa probably originated from the Flora family and developed an Itokawa-compositional, more space-weathered, fine-regolith-dominated surface.