An asteroid that orbited near Earth for a few months as a mini-moon may be a chunk of the moon that was blasted off by an impact thousands of years ago.

New research suggests that Earth's recent mini-moon might have originated as part of our actual moon long, long ago.

On Monday (Jan. 27), Texas-based Firefly released two photos of the moon that Blue Ghost captured from Earth orbit. One shows the natural satellite all alone, a small grayish dot in an empty black sea; the other is a selfie, showing the moon glowing above some of Blue Ghost's golden hardware.

Firefly's Blue Ghost Mission 1 has taken a significant leap toward the Moon, with its successful second engine burn positioning the spacecraft for lunar orbit. NASA’s science and technology instruments aboard Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 are making steady progress toward the Moon.