In a rare event, the Moon got a massive new crater

Science News ^ | March 24, 2024 | Science News Staff

[Diana in Wisconsin]

A once-in-a-century crater formed on the moon right under our noses. A routine search of images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter camera found a fresh crater as wide as two American football fields, planetary scientist Mark Robinson reported March 17 at the Lunar and Planetary Sciences Meeting in The Woodlands, Texas.

The crater is 225 meters wide and formed in April or May 2024, Robinson said. According to predictions based on other lunar landmarks, a crater that big should form only once in 139 years. The discovery can help highlight the risks impacts pose to future astronauts.

One of the first craters the orbiter spotted after it began its mission in 2009 was 70 meters wide, said Robinson, of Houston-based spaceflight company Intuitive Machines. “I used to joke with folks … that now the bar has been set, you have to find a 100-meter crater,” he said. “Now, lo and behold, we have 225 meters.”

[Libloather]

DEI hire.

[telescope115]

That’s a good question. It probably hasn’t changed it by much, by it would be interesting to know. I’m still trying to find WHERE it is, exactly. It’s probably too small to see with my telescope, but our club’s scope might be able to spot it.

[Farmerbob]

I thought there was still monitors on the moon. I remember a report a year or two ago about something causing
the moon to “ring like a bell”.

[MikelTackNailer]

Obviously this resulted from the last time Chuck Norris played golf.

[neverevergiveup]

I thought there were too, but when I searched it was stated that the Apollo seismometers were all shut down in 1977 due to budget issues, and there are apparently no others on the moon presently. I was surprised.

[neverevergiveup]

I thought it was from when he did shot-put.

[pas]

formed in April or May 2024,

[JimRed]

Craters don’t “form”...BANG and they’re THERE!

[Does so]

The moon is inching away from Earth.
Impacts on “our” side don’t help.

[verum ago]

Not sure 225 meters wide qualifies as “massive”

We live in an era of competition for clicks, which has translated into breathless and hyperbolic headlines. 'Massive' and 'huge' are words that definitely seem to suffer overuse to the point of meaninglessness.

If a headline says 'massive' wildfire, is it going to be 500 acres or 50,000?

If a headline says a 'huge' explosion, was it a pipebomb or did an entire building blow up?

If they report a 'massive' landslide, did if affect 2 properties or was it a whole mountainside with long runout?

Simply no way to tell anymore, because appending those 'extreme' terms is almost mandatory these days.

(And don't get me started on whoever started the trend of appending 'mega-' as a prefix to everything...)

[Getready]

So Johnny B. Goode was on the moon?

[Repealthe17thAmendment]

I would expect at least a tiny wobble until it settled in, but I'm no astrophysicist.

[MikelTackNailer]

"Obviously this resulted from the last time Chuck Norris played golf."

I thought it was from when he did shot-put.

No, that's what caused unexpected sun spots. Hopefully earthquakes will diminish now that Chuck's no longer doing push-downs.

[neverevergiveup]

LOL!

[clearcarbon]

" I remember a report a year or two ago about something causing the moon to 'ring like a bell'.

I remember that as well. It might have been part of a study done using some space hardware to impact the moon and then measuring the seismic response. That may go back to the 70's.

[xone]

A great episode!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

A man I used to work with (in the Army) was a HUGE ‘Telescope’ Guy and he kept a nightly track on whatever the Moon was doing.

He ended up having one of the craters named for him. The ‘Darling’ Crater. He was so excited! Can’t blame him. :)

He’s the one that got me interested in telescopes and the case for a pair of good binoculars, the Moon and ‘All Things Spacey’ way back when.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"Someone on the moon with a Bobcat made it. Just to mess with us."

[telescope115]

What a great story! Thanks for sharing it!😀🔭

[Diana in Wisconsin]

The, ‘Last’ and now, ‘LAST’ time Chuck played golf! *SOB* ;)