NASA discovers a once-in-a-century impact blasted a 728-foot crater into the Moon.
Scientists using NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter data found a 728-foot crater on the Moon's eastern edge, the largest newly formed crater ever identified in the solar system, according to NASA.
Scientists working with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) reported a newly formed crater on the Moon's eastern edge that is 728 feet wide and 141 feet deep. NASA says it is the largest newly formed crater ever found in the solar system. The crater was named McGetchin, after lunar scientist Tom McGetchin, and the findings appeared in Science Advances.
According to NASA, the crater formed sometime between April 11 and May 22, 2024, when a comet or asteroid roughly the size of a three- to six-story building struck the surface. The crater spans about the length of two football fields and is deep enough to hold three stacked school buses. Scientists estimate that an impact of this size happens on the Moon about once in a century, or even less often.
Robert Wagner, an image-processing specialist from Intuitive Machines who works with LRO camera data, spotted it on Oct. 24, 2025, during a routine data-quality check. He had stacked hundreds of older and newer Wide-Angle Camera images with software that highlights change. A large bright spot ringed by a dark halo stood out. "I just stopped, dropped everything, and started looking into what that spot was," Wagner said.
The software typically produces hundreds of false alarms, so Wagner checks its results by hand. McGetchin spanned hundreds of pixels. "It was by far the most obvious impact debris pattern I’ve ever seen in one of these images," he said. Follow-up images from the Narrow-Angle Camera, which sees about 3 feet per pixel, revealed the crater's size and shape. NASA says estimates of the size and force of the impacting rock are expected in a future paper.
A second paper reported results from LRO's thermal instrument, Diviner. It found a 4-mile-wide area around the crater that is about 16 degrees Fahrenheit cooler at night than its surroundings. The researchers say the impact fluffed up the regolith, leaving it less dense and less able to hold heat. Scientists called the size of this cold spot striking because it shows impacts can alter the surface far beyond the crater itself. NASA notes the changes could affect how rover wheels interact with the ground.
LRO has orbited the Moon for more than 17 years. Its team has identified at least 1,000 new impact craters and flagged 100,000 other surface changes tied to impacts or their debris.
Note: The page credits the discovery to Robert Wagner of Intuitive Machines, working with NASA's LRO camera data, and describes the once-in-a-century frequency as an estimate (about once in a century or longer).
At a Glance
- McGetchin crater is 728 feet wide and 141 feet deep, on the Moon's eastern edge.
- The impact happened between April 11 and May 22, 2024, and was spotted Oct. 24, 2025.
- Diviner data showed a 4-mile-wide area around the crater about 16 degrees Fahrenheit cooler at night.
- LRO's team has identified at least 1,000 new impact craters during more than 17 years of mapping.
Sources
This brief was written by Brightside Report from the reporting linked above. Spot an error? Request a correction.