Space research body NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has been studying the surface of the moon since 2009. It helps astronauts work out where to land and finds resources like water and extended sunlight to help power on-site tools.
But when NASA scientist and image processing specialist Robert Wagner spotted a huge bright spot in its recordings, surrounded by a dark “halo” that suggested a disturbance and displaced rock, he said he “stopped, dropped everything, and started looking into what that spot was”.
This happened during a routine data quality check.
As it turns out, this was the largest new crater found in the solar system and, according to the Science Advances paper written about it, a “once-in-132-year event”.
What do we know about the new crater?
It’s about 222 me...
English (US)