tldrdailynews.com logo
Tag

Crater

All articles tagged with #crater

Moon's 'once-in-a-century' crater McGetchin photographed by LRO
space18 days ago

Moon's 'once-in-a-century' crater McGetchin photographed by LRO

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured a new Moon crater, McGetchin, about 221.9 meters wide and 43 meters deep. Discovered in Oct 2025 and imaged on Dec 5, 2025, scientists believe the impact occurred in 2024 and involved an object roughly the size of a three-to-six-story building. Described as the largest newly formed crater on the Moon (and possibly in the solar system), the pristine site provides a rare opportunity to study fresh lunar geology before space weather erodes it.

via Space|
#crater#lro#lunar-geology
Moon’s 2024 Impact Creates a 222-Meter Crater With an Unusually Cold Halo
space22 days ago

Moon’s 2024 Impact Creates a 222-Meter Crater With an Unusually Cold Halo

Researchers using NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter data identified the 728-foot (222 m) McGetchin crater—likely formed by a 2024 Moon impact—whose surrounding 4.3-mile (7 km) cold spot suggests fluffy regolith retains heat poorly; the findings, published in Science Advances, imply such impacts are rare (about once every 132 years) and could inform future lunar bases and regolith management.

via Gizmodo|
#crater#lunar#moon
LRO Spots Fresh Lunar Crater From Rare Century-Scale Impact
space22 days ago

LRO Spots Fresh Lunar Crater From Rare Century-Scale Impact

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter confirmed a newly formed crater on the Moon, named McGetchin, created by an impact between April 11 and May 22, 2024. The crater measures about 728 feet (222 meters) across and 141 feet (43 meters) deep, making it the largest modern‑day lunar crater, though not the Moon’s largest overall. Such impacts are estimated to occur roughly every 132 years. Follow-up images show a four‑mile‑wide area around the crater that remains about 16°F cooler at night, likely from disturbed regolith, which could affect rover-wheel interactions near fresh craters.

via Engadget|
#crater#lro#moon
Fresh lunar crater McGetchin: a 222-meter record dated to a seven‑week window in 2024
space22 days ago

Fresh lunar crater McGetchin: a 222-meter record dated to a seven‑week window in 2024

NASA’s LRO data pin down the Moon’s 222‑metre McGetchin crater forming between April 11 and May 22, 2024—an unusually precise age for a fresh crater. Its gleaming ejecta and a seven‑kilometre thermal anomaly show how new impacts expose subsurface material at a boundary between mare basalt and highland crust and how space weathering darkens ejecta over time. Reported in Science Advances, two papers detail the dating method and the broader implications for ejecta distribution and regolith evolution. The IAU named the crater McGetchin in 2026, highlighting how such young features provide rare, date‑constrained windows into impact processes on the Moon.

via Space Daily|
#crater#ejecta#mcgetchin
Google Maps Find Leads to Discovery of Hidden 15-Mile Canadian Crater
science22 days ago

Google Maps Find Leads to Discovery of Hidden 15-Mile Canadian Crater

A camper scrolling Google Maps near Lake Marsal in Quebec spotted a near-perfect 15-mile ring. After checking crater databases, researchers Osinski and Gattacceca led a 2025 field expedition where they found shatter cones and impact melt, confirming the feature as an impact crater about 390 million years old with a 25 km diameter, named Uhackatik on Innu land. This marks the first publicly reported sighting confirmed as an Earth impact crater, highlighting that only ~200 craters are confirmed and many more likely remain hidden beneath sediment, ice, or water.

via Futura, le média qui explore le monde|
#canada#crater#geology
Moon’s McGetchin Crater: A Real-Time Window Into Impact Physics
space23 days ago

Moon’s McGetchin Crater: A Real-Time Window Into Impact Physics

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter identified McGetchin crater as the largest newly formed impact crater on the Moon, about 728 feet (222 meters) wide and 141 feet (43 meters) deep, formed between April 11 and May 22, 2024. The site, observed before and after the impact, shows an extensive ejecta blanket and a ~4.3-mile-wide thermal “cold spot” around it, revealing how the surface and upper regolith were disturbed. The findings—published in Science Advances—offer a pristine natural laboratory for studying crater formation and lunar geology with implications for future exploration.

via Space|
#crater#geology#lro
Record-Breaking Moon Crater Detected by NASA
space23 days ago

Record-Breaking Moon Crater Detected by NASA

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has identified a new, record-setting crater on the Moon’s near side named McGetchin, formed in 2024 by an asteroid or comet impact. About 728 feet across and up to 141 feet deep, it’s the largest known recent lunar crater, roughly three times bigger than the prior record, carving a 66-mile trail and creating a 4-mile-wide cold spot that signals regolith loosening. The discovery went undetected by telescopes until 2025 and is considered a statistically rare event (~once every 132 years). Findings published in Science Advances will help inform future Moon-base planning and how to mitigate ejecta threats.

via New York Post|
#crater#lunar-regolith#moon
Moon uncovers its largest recent crater, prompting rethink of lunar bases
space24 days ago

Moon uncovers its largest recent crater, prompting rethink of lunar bases

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has identified the Moon’s largest known recent impact crater, McGetchin, about 728 feet (220 meters) wide and up to 141 feet (43 meters) deep on the near side. Formed in May 2024 by a fragment from an asteroid or comet and confirmed in 2025–26, the crater is three times larger than the previous LRO record-holder and has churned the surface over roughly 66 miles, ejecting dust and rocks at higher angles than expected. A separate study notes a 4‑mile-wide cold spot around the crater, consistent with regolith upheaval. Scientists say such a large event is statistically rare (about once every 132 years) and the data will help NASA plan a future Moon base by assessing ejecta risks and how the topmost soil is mixed, acknowledging that Apollo footprints won’t necessarily last as long as once thought.

via NBC News|
#crater#lro#moon
NASA Captures Fresh Lunar Crater From SpaceX Falcon 9 Debris Impact
science1 month ago

NASA Captures Fresh Lunar Crater From SpaceX Falcon 9 Debris Impact

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the first detailed views of a fresh crater on the Moon formed when a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage slammed into the surface on Aug. 5. The crater is about 18 meters (60 feet) wide and under 3 meters (10 feet) deep, with bright and dark ejecta rays indicating recent excavation. The Danuri spacecraft helped pinpoint the site, and the images shed light on lunar impact processes and the hazards posed by space debris for future Moon missions.

via Gizmodo|
#crater#falcon-9#moon
NASA Images Show 60-Foot Lunar Crater From SpaceX Falcon 9 Crash
space1 month ago

NASA Images Show 60-Foot Lunar Crater From SpaceX Falcon 9 Crash

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured before-and-after imagery of a roughly 60-foot-wide crater on the Moon, created when SpaceX’s Falcon 9 upper stage crashed on Aug. 5. The site, on the sunlit limb, shows bright and dark ejecta rays and a depth likely under 10 feet, with the crater center around 1,700 feet in elevation. Images taken Aug. 11–12 followed tracking of the booster’s trajectory, and observations also came from a Chilean telescope and South Korea’s Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter. SpaceX noted disposal challenges but emphasized space safety, marking one of the rare cases of a human-made object unintentionally impacting the Moon and fueling ongoing space-sustainability discussions.

via NBC News|
#crater#lro#moon
First Moon Crater Image Shows SpaceX Debris Impact
space2 months ago

First Moon Crater Image Shows SpaceX Debris Impact

Images from Korea’s Danuri lunar orbiter capture a small crater on the Moon created by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 second stage. The site is only dozens of feet across and about 3.6 meters deep; the impact followed over a year in unstable orbit, with observations of sodium and lithium confirming the collision. Higher‑resolution views may come, but the crater will remain small relative to the Moon’s size, and observers note weather/timing hurdles for imaging.

via WIRED|
#crater#danuri#falcon-9