{"id":900179,"date":"2026-09-21T14:46:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T14:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/900179\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T14:46:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T14:46:13","slug":"nasas-moon-orbiter-found-a-700-foot-crater-that-wasnt-there-before-and-its-created-a-strange-cold-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/900179\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s Moon orbiter found a 700-foot crater that wasn\u2019t there before \u2013 and it’s created a strange cold spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Get the key facts about this story with our 1-minute summary<\/p>\n

Lunar discovery: A NASA scientist has spotted the largest newly-formed crater ever recorded in our Solar System on the Moon’s surface.<\/p>\n

Initial detection: Robert Wagner, part of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter team, noticed an enormous bright spot surrounded by a dark circle while scanning a map captured by the spacecraft.<\/p>\n

Impact timing: The huge crater formed on the Moon’s eastern edge at some point between 11 April and 22 May 2024.<\/p>\n

Crater dimensions: Named McGetchin, the newly uncovered impact site measures an 222 metres (728 ft) wide and 43 metres (141 ft) deep.<\/p>\n

Enormous space rock: Researchers believe the crater was produced when a comet or asteroid the size of a three- to six-storey building smashed into the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

Impact frequency: Scientists say impacts of this scale occur on the Moon only about once every century.<\/p>\n

LRO’s legacy: Since 2009, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has mapped thousands of new craters and surface changes from its 50km (30-mile) vantage point above the surface of the Moon.<\/p>\n

Earth’ protection: Unlike Earth, which has a thick atmosphere that can burn up incoming space rocks, the Moon is exposed to constant debris bombardment.<\/p>\n

Thermal effects: Follow-up observations using the orbiter’s Diviner instrument revealed a 6.5-kilometre-wide cold area surrounding the crater caused by disturbed, more-diffuse patches lunar dust.<\/p>\n

\"ACredits: NASA Goddard\/Intuitive Machines\/Robert Wagner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get the key facts about this story with our 1-minute summary Lunar discovery: A NASA scientist has spotted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":900180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[64,63,128],"class_list":["post-900179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/900180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}