NASA identifies McGetchin Crater on Moon after Robert Wagner's discovery
NASA has spotted a fresh impact crater on the Moon, now called the McGetchin crater.
Scientist Robert Wagner made the find while checking lunar maps, and it looks like a space rock hit sometime between April and May 2024.
The crater is pretty big, about 728 feet wide, and stands out because of its bright center and dark ring, showing where the Moon's surface was recently disturbed.
LRO helped identify 1,000 craters
Big impacts like this are rare, maybe once every 100 years, which makes this discovery a big deal. It also reminds us that without an atmosphere, the Moon is wide open to impacts from asteroids, comets and other objects traveling through space.
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which has been orbiting for over 17 years, helped spot this new crater and has helped identify at least 1,000 new impact craters so far.
These findings help scientists understand how quickly the Moon's landscape changes and how impacts reshape its surface.