McGetchin crater: the Moon took a 15-kiloton hit in 2024 and nobody saw the flash
Sometime between 11 April and 22 May 2024, something the size of a three-to-six-storey building slammed into the eastern side of the Moon’s near side and blew out a crater 222 m across and 43 m deep. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photographed the aftermath within weeks, but nobody noticed until 2025, and the results only went public this month. The crater, now named McGetchin, is the largest fresh impact crater ever documented anywhere in the Solar System. It released roughly 15 kilotons of TNT-equivalent energy, and no telescope on Earth recorded the flash. ...