{"id":362,"date":"2026-09-26T14:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T14:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/?p=362"},"modified":"2026-09-26T14:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T14:07:14","slug":"nasa-lro-mcgetchin-once-in-century-moon-crater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/?p=362","title":{"rendered":"ONCE-IN-A-CENTURY MOON CRATER FOUND! | LRO spots 728-foot McGetchin \u2014 biggest new crater ever caught forming in the solar system, plus a 4-mile cold spot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NASA\u2019s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter caught the biggest new crater ever observed forming in the solar system: McGetchin, a 728-foot-wide (~222 m), 141-foot-deep scar on the Moon\u2019s eastern edge that appeared between April 11 and May 22, 2024, NASA Science coverage (Lonnie Shekhtman) said Sept. 24, 2026, citing <em>Science Advances<\/em> papers dated Sept. 16.<\/p>\n<p>Robert Wagner (Intuitive Machines \/ LROC) spotted it by comparing Wide-Angle Camera maps from Oct. 24, 2025. The impactor was roughly the size of a 3\u20136 story building. Events this large hit about once a century \u2014 or rarer (~once per 132 years, New Scientist noted). Debris was flung more than 120 km from the crater.<\/p>\n<p>Diviner temperature data showed a ~4-mile region about 16\u00b0F colder at night where fluffed regolith blankets the surface. The crater is named for Tom McGetchin. Papers: Robinson et al. <em>Sci Adv<\/em> 10.1126\/sciadv.aeh7812; Powell et al. 10.1126\/sciadv.aeh9568.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sources:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/solar-system\/moon\/nasas-moon-orbiter-spots-new-once-in-century-moon-crater\/\">NASA Science<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/scitechdaily.com\/once-in-a-century-impact-nasa-just-found-a-massive-new-crater-on-the-moon\/\">SciTechDaily<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2589435-asteroid-hit-the-moon-and-flung-debris-120-kilometres-from-the-crater\/\">New Scientist<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LRO spots 728-foot McGetchin \u2014 biggest new crater ever caught forming in the solar system, plus a 4-mile cold spot<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bb-moon-mcgetchin-crater-0926.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}