NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has spotted a massive new crater on the Moon that scientists say was created in a rare, once-in-a-century impact. The newly named McGetchin crater is 728 feet wide — about the length of two football fields — and 141 feet deep, NASA said in a release . It is the largest newly formed impact crater ever found in the solar system.
Scientists believe an asteroid or comet roughly the size of a three- to six-story building struck the moon’s eastern edge sometime between April 11 and May 22, 2024. The impact was not detected when it happened. Robert Wagner, an image-processing specialist working with the orbiter’s camera system, found evidence of the crater during a routine data-quality check in October 2025.
A bright spot surrounded by a dark halo stood out in before-and-after images of the lunar surface. “I just stopped, dropped everything, and started looking into what that spot was,” Wagner said. The bright area was debris blasted from the crater, NASA said. Close-up images later revealed the crater’s size, shape and the broad swath of lunar terrain disturbed by the strike.
NASA's thermal instrument also identified a 4-mile-wide area surrounding the crater that is about 16 degrees cooler at night than nearby terrain. Researchers said the impact loosened the moon’s surface material, called regolith, making it less dense and less able to retain heat. The finding shows that impacts can alter the lunar surface far beyond the crater itself — changes that could affect how future rover wheels and other equipment operate on the moon.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been circling the moon for more than 17 years, mapping its terrain, temperature, radiation and surface composition. The spacecraft has identified at least 1,000 new impact craters and flagged about 100,000 other surface changes during its mission. NASA said the discovery underscores the value of closely tracking changes on the Moon as the agency works toward a sustained human presence, expanded scientific research and commercial activity on the lunar surface.
