The Moon Just Got a New Scar
7 hours ago
- #Lunar Impact Crater
- #Space Rock Collision
- #NASA LRO Discovery
- The Moon's surface is covered with impact craters from four billion years of bombardment, preserved due to a lack of weather, rivers, or wind.
- In late spring 2024, a high-speed space rock created a crater 225 meters wide on the Moon, detected by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera.
- This new crater is over three times larger than any previously observed during the LRO mission, with an estimated frequency of once every 139 years per lunar area.
- The crater is funnel-shaped, 43 meters deep, with steep walls and large ejected rock blocks up to 13 meters across, indicating an impact from the south-southwest.
- Dark, glassy rock inside the crater, formed by flash melting and solidification, provides evidence of the immense energy released during the collision.
- High-quality before-and-after images offer a rare dataset for scientists to refine models of crater formation across the Solar System.