NASA Discovers Massive New Lunar Crater from Undetected Impact
The 728-foot-wide crater, the largest recent impact site in the solar system, offers insights for future lunar missions.
Scientists have identified a significant new crater on the Moon, measuring approximately 728 feet in diameter and up to 141 feet deep. This impact event, which occurred about two years ago, was initially undetected and has since been confirmed as the largest known impact crater formed in the solar system in recent times. The discovery was made using data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).
The steep-sided crater, named McGetchin in honor of the late Thomas McGetchin, a former director of Houston's Lunar and Planetary Institute, is three times larger than the previous record-holder found by the LRO a decade ago. Such a substantial impact is estimated to occur only once every 132 years, making this observation particularly valuable.
The impact originated from a fragment of an asteroid or comet. While the LRO's wide-angle images captured the event in May 2024, the specific impact site was not identified in the data until August 2025. The spacecraft later gathered more detailed images, leading to the confirmation of the discovery in early 2026.
This event churned the lunar surface for more than 66 miles, ejecting dust and rocky soil at a higher angle than anticipated. Researchers also identified a roughly 4-mile-wide cold spot around the new crater, suggesting a loosening of the moon's top soil layers. Scientists are studying these ejected materials, likening the process to "gardening" the lunar surface, which churns sediments and brings subsurface material to the top.
Data from the LRO, launched in 2009, indicates that the Moon's top layer of soil is overturned by ejected material approximately every 80,000 years, a more rapid rate than previously understood. This implies that even the Apollo astronauts' footprints may not endure indefinitely.
Understanding the extent and trajectory of ejected material from such impacts is crucial as NASA plans to establish a lunar base. This information will aid engineers in designing structures that can withstand potential damage from these ongoing geological processes.