{"id":55196,"date":"2026-09-17T15:30:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T09:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=55196"},"modified":"2026-09-17T15:30:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T09:45:41","slug":"nasa-scan-discovers-new-once-in-a-century-moon-crater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/nasa-scan-discovers-new-once-in-a-century-moon-crater\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA scan discovers new, ‘once in a century’ Moon crater"},"content":{"rendered":"
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WASHINGTON, United States, Sept 17 :<\/strong> A researcher at NASA has found a massive, recently-formed crater on the Moon, a rare occurrence that only happens “once in a century or even longer,” according to scientists.<\/p>\n

The crater, dubbed “McGetchin,” measures 730 feet (222 meters) wide, NASA said in a blog post.<\/p>\n

It is believed to have been created in the spring of 2024 from a comet or asteroid colliding with the Moon, with researchers describing the object that caused it to be the size of a building three-to-six stories high.<\/p>\n

“Scientists estimate that an impact of this magnitude happens on the Moon about once in a century or even longer,” NASA said in the blog post.<\/p>\n

Although the crater had been there for years, it was not discovered until Robert Wagner, a researcher with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), noticed it in a new scan of the Moon’s surface.<\/p>\n

The crater appeared as a “large bright spot circled by a dark halo” by the LRO probe, which has been studying the Moon since 2009.<\/p>\n

A study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances determined it was the largest new crater ever discovered in the solar system.<\/p>\n

While the Moon has numerous craters, many of which are far bigger than McGetchin, researching a crater’s formation in real time can help build understanding of the Moon’s geology.<\/p>\n

This in turn could better prepare future crewed missions to the Moon, which are currently planned by both the United States and China.<\/p>\n

Unlike Earth, the Moon has virtually no atmospheric layer, so space debris does not slow down or burn up before colliding with the surface.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, United States, Sept 17 : A researcher at NASA has found a massive, recently-formed crater on the Moon, a rare occurrence that only happens “once in a century or even longer,” according to scientists. The crater, dubbed “McGetchin,” measures 730 feet (222 meters) wide, NASA said in a blog post. It is believed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55196"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55196"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55198,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55196\/revisions\/55198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}