PRIMA $1 billion already ran. Jezero three waters already ran. This is the unused Thursday hole.
NASA, Lonnie Shekhtman, Sept. 24, on two Science Advances papers dated Sept. 16: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter images showed a crater that had not been there. Robert Wagner compared older frames with newer ones. The hole is 728 feet across — NASA: about two football fields end to end — and 141 feet deep, enough to stack three school buses. It formed near the Moon’s eastern edge sometime between April 11 and May 22, 2024. It is officially McGetchin, for lunar scientist Tom McGetchin. NASA called it the largest newly formed crater identified in the solar system in that research. A before-and-after is not a live impact we watched.
A second paper in the same issue: the floor ran about 16 degrees Fahrenheit colder at night than the surrounding ground, which the authors tied to how the strike remade the regolith. LROC’s Narrow-Angle Camera later resolved details at about 3 feet per pixel. Confirmation is a name and a size. It is not a craft, not PRIMA’s 2030s target, and not Jezero’s three waters.
What this means for you
If you needed Wednesday’s unused probe, it still stands. If you needed tonight’s unused science, it is 728 feet, 141 feet deep, and a spring-2024 window. Not a launch. Not three waters.
Bottom line: McGetchin 728 feet. Spring 2024. Not PRIMA. Not a craft.
GLHR NEWS explains the news. Not investment, tax, or trading advice. Do your own work before you act.
