NASA’s Moon Orbiter Spots New, ‘Once-in-Century’ Moon Crater
It started as a routine data-quality check. But as Robert Wagner, a scientist with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), scanned a giant Moon map on his computer screen, an unusually large bright spot circled by a dark halo caught his eye, as it implied that surface material in that area had been shaken up. “I […] The post NASA’s Moon Orbiter Spots New, ‘Once-in-Century’ Moon Crater appeared…
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) recently discovered a massive new crater on the Moon, described as a “once-in-a-century” event. The crater, named McGetchin, spans 728 feet in diameter and is 141 feet deep, comparable to three stacked yellow school buses. Discovered by Robert Wagner, an image-processing specialist at Intuitive Machines, the crater was formed by a space rock, likely between three to six stories tall, striking the lunar surface between April 11 and May 22, 2024.
Scientists estimate such impacts occur on the Moon approximately once every century, highlighting the value of LRO’s data in understanding the dynamic lunar landscape.
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