{"id":629008,"date":"2026-09-18T23:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T23:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/629008\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T23:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T23:20:10","slug":"new-impact-crater-spotted-on-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/629008\/","title":{"rendered":"New Impact Crater Spotted on the Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Using images from the LROC instrument onboard NASA\u2019s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), scientists have discovered the biggest newly formed impact crater ever discovered in the Solar System. The crater, now named McGetchin, appeared on the Moon\u2019s eastern edge in 2024.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.sci.news\/images\/enlarge14\/image_15076e-McGetchin-Crater.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-111835\" class=\"wp-image-111835 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image_15076-McGetchin-Crater.jpg\" alt=\"This close-up view of McGetchin crater was taken on December 5, 2025, by the Narrow-Angle Camera (NAC) onboard NASA\u2019s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Image credit: NASA Goddard \/ Intuitive Machines.\" width=\"580\" height=\"580\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-111835\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This close-up view of McGetchin crater was taken on December 5, 2025, by the Narrow-Angle Camera (NAC) onboard NASA\u2019s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Image credit: NASA Goddard \/ Intuitive Machines.<\/p>\n<p>Named for pioneering lunar scientist Tom McGetchin, the new crater is about 222 m (728 feet) wide and 43 m (141 feet) deep.<\/p>\n<p>It formed sometime between April 11 and May 22, 2024, when a comet or asteroid the size of a three- to six-story building hit the surface.<\/p>\n<p>The discovery came from a routine data check on Ocober 24, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Robert Wagner, an image-processing specialist at Intuitive Machines who works with LROC data, was scanning a global lunar map.<\/p>\n<p>An unusually large bright spot ringed by a dark halo stood out, a sign that surface material had been thrown around.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just stopped, dropped everything, and started looking into what that spot was,\u201d Wagner said.<\/p>\n<p>Follow-up images from LRO\u2019s sharper Narrow-Angle Camera <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/sciadv.aeh7812\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">confirmed<\/a> the McGetchin crater\u2019s size and shape.<\/p>\n<p>Observations from the orbiter\u2019s Diviner thermal instrument <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/sciadv.aeh9568\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">found<\/a> a \u2018cold spot\u2019 about 6 km (4 miles) wide around the crater, roughly 9 degrees Celsius cooler at night than the surrounding terrain.<\/p>\n<p>The impact fluffed up the lunar soil, making it less dense and less able to hold heat.<\/p>\n<p>This shows a big impact can alter the Moon\u2019s surface far beyond the crater rim.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe images show that the crater exposed complex geology, inform current models of cratering mechanics, and document widespread surface changes extending more than 1,000 crater radii,\u201d the researchers said.<\/p>\n<p>The findings appear in two papers in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/journal\/sciadv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">journal Science Advances<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>_____<\/p>\n<p>Mark S. Robinson et al. 2026. A new 222-m diameter lunar crater. Science Advances 12 (38); doi: 10.1126\/sciadv.aeh7812<\/p>\n<p>Tyler M. Powell et al. 2026. New lunar crater reveals extensive distal regolith modification. Science Advances 12 (38); doi: 10.1126\/sciadv.aeh9568<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Using images from the LROC instrument onboard NASA\u2019s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), scientists have discovered the biggest newly&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4474,18247,25936,61,25937,60,138924,267100,6185,91,82,3630],"class_list":["post-629008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-asteroid","tag-comet","tag-crater","tag-ie","tag-impact-crater","tag-ireland","tag-lunar-reconnaissance-orbiter","tag-mcgetchin-crater","tag-moon","tag-nasa","tag-science","tag-solar-system"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}