A massive new crater discovered on the Moon is giving scientists an unusually fresh look at how powerful impacts reshape the lunar surface. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) identified the crater, which formed in 2024 and measures about 728 feet (222 meters) across and up to 141 feet (43 meters) deep. Researchers say an impact of this magnitude is expected only about once every 130 years, making the discovery an exceptionally rare opportunity to study the Moon’s changing landscape.
A Once-in-a-Lifetime Impact
The newly identified feature, officially named McGetchin crater, formed sometime between April 11 and May 22, 2024, when a fragment of an asteroid or comet slammed into the Moon near the eastern edge of its near side.
The object responsible may have been roughly the size of a three- to six-story building. The collision produced a crater approximately the length of two American football fields and deep enough to stack about three school buses vertically.
Researchers estimate that a crater of this size forms on the Moon only about once every 130 years.
“This event constitutes a statistically rare, effectively once-in-a-lifetime observation,” researchers wrote in one of two studies published in Science Advances.
The crater was named after Thomas McGetchin, a pioneering lunar scientist and former director of the Lunar and Planetary Institute. McGetchin contributed extensively to scientists’ understanding of impact cratering and the distribution of material thrown from craters.
Hidden in NASA’s Lunar Images
Although NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photographed the affected region after the impact, scientists did not immediately recognize what had happened.
Robert Wagner, an image-processing specialist working with LRO camera data, eventually noticed the enormous impact signature while examining before-and-after images of the lunar surface. The discovery stood out dramatically compared with the smaller changes normally detected in LRO imagery.
“It was by far the most obvious impact debris pattern I’ve ever seen,” Wagner said.
Scientists then used higher-resolution observations from the spacecraft’s Narrow-Angle Camera to study the crater’s size, shape and surrounding terrain. The images revealed just how dramatically the relatively recent collision had transformed the area.
An Impact Felt Far Beyond the Crater
The collision did much more than carve a 222-meter-wide hole into the Moon.
Material thrown from the impact disturbed the lunar landscape across an area extending more than 66 miles (100 kilometers). Scientists found that dust and rocky soil were launched away from the impact at unexpectedly high angles.
Researchers studying thermal data also identified a roughly 4-mile-wide (7-kilometer-wide) “cold spot” surrounding McGetchin. The region is cooler at night because the collision loosened or “fluffed up” the lunar regolith, reducing its ability to retain heat.
The discovery demonstrates that a single impact can alter the Moon’s physical properties far beyond the visible crater itself. That could have implications for future rovers, equipment and astronauts operating on the lunar surface.
The Moon’s Surface Is Still Changing
The findings also challenge the idea that the Moon is essentially an unchanging world.
Without wind or rain, marks on the lunar surface can survive for extraordinarily long periods. However, continuous impacts gradually disturb and redistribute the Moon’s upper layer of dusty soil.
Data gathered by LRO since its 2009 launch indicate that roughly the upper inch, or 2 centimeters, of lunar soil can be overturned by material ejected from impacts over approximately 80,000 years.
That means even some of humanity’s most famous marks on the Moon are not permanent. Mark Robinson, chief scientist for the LRO cameras, said the Apollo astronauts’ footprints will eventually be “definitely be long gone in that time frame.”
A Natural Laboratory for Future Moon Missions
McGetchin crater is particularly valuable because scientists have images of the region from both before and after the collision. Unlike ancient craters that have endured countless smaller impacts and prolonged exposure to the space environment, this site provides researchers with an unusually pristine example of a major lunar impact.
Understanding how debris travels after collisions could become increasingly important as NASA and other space agencies prepare for longer-term human activity on the Moon.
Scientists now want to better calculate the danger posed by material ejected from future impacts. Those findings could influence how lunar habitats and other infrastructure are designed and protected.
The discovery therefore represents more than another crater added to the Moon’s already battered landscape. McGetchin offers scientists a rare natural experiment—one that could improve understanding of lunar geology while helping engineers prepare for a future in which people and equipment remain on the Moon for much longer periods.
Conclusion
NASA’s discovery of McGetchin crater provides a remarkable snapshot of a process that has shaped the Moon for billions of years but is rarely witnessed on such a scale in modern times. Formed only in 2024, the enormous crater shows that the lunar surface remains dynamic, with powerful impacts capable of disturbing terrain kilometers away. As scientists continue studying the site, the lessons hidden within this once-in-a-century event could prove valuable for understanding the Moon’s history and protecting future explorers.
