NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Reveals a Massive New Moon Crater

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed McGetchin crater, a 222-meter-wide impact feature formed on the Moon between April 11 and May 22, 2024. The crater is the largest newly formed crater identified during the LRO mission and provides scientists with an unusually fresh record of a high-energy lunar impact. Follow-up observations also detected a thermal disturbance extending roughly four miles around the crater, showing that a major impact can alter lunar soil far beyond the visible hole.

A New Crater Hidden in Years of Lunar Data

The Moon may look like a static world from Earth, but its surface is continually being altered by impacts from objects traveling through space.

NASA now has a particularly detailed example of that process.

During a routine examination of data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, image-processing specialist Robert Wagner noticed an unusually bright feature surrounded by a dark halo in a large-scale map of the lunar surface. Comparing images taken at different times revealed that the feature had not existed in earlier observations.

The discovery ultimately led scientists to a newly formed impact crater now officially named McGetchin crater, after lunar scientist Thomas McGetchin. The crater was reported in September 2026 in Science Advances.

What makes the finding particularly valuable is not simply its size. Scientists have observations of the same region from before and after the impact, allowing them to study how a major collision changed the lunar surface.

An Impact Large Enough to Leave a 222-Meter Crater

McGetchin crater measures approximately 222 meters (728 feet) across and about 43 meters (141 feet) deep.

That makes it roughly twice the length of an American football field.

Researchers estimate that the impact occurred sometime between April 11 and May 22, 2024. The object responsible is thought to have been an asteroid or comet fragment several tens of meters across, potentially comparable in scale to a three- to six-story building.

An impact capable of producing a crater of this size is rare on the Moon. Researchers estimate that events in this size range occur roughly once every century or longer.

The resulting crater was therefore not simply another addition to the Moon’s enormous collection of impact scars. It created an unusually well-preserved natural laboratory for studying the physics of lunar impacts.

How LRO Found Something New on an Ancient Surface

The discovery demonstrates the scientific value of repeatedly observing the same planetary surface.

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been circling the Moon since 2009. Its instruments have produced extensive maps of lunar terrain, temperature, composition and other surface properties.

For the crater discovery, researchers compared large numbers of images acquired at different times. Software helped highlight areas that had changed, but human inspection remained important because changes in illumination, shadows and viewing geometry can produce false signals.

The initial discovery came from the LRO Wide-Angle Camera. Scientists then used the spacecraft’s much higher-resolution Narrow-Angle Camera to examine the suspected impact site in greater detail.

Those observations revealed the crater’s dimensions, shape and surrounding ejecta — the rock and dust thrown outward during the collision.

The sequence effectively gave researchers something rare in planetary science: a relatively fresh impact site with extensive observations collected both before and after its formation.

The Impact Changed More Than the Crater Itself

One of the most important findings came from observations beyond the crater’s visible rim.

When an asteroid or comet strikes the Moon, enormous amounts of energy are transferred into the surface. Rock and regolith — the loose layer of dust, soil and fragmented rock covering the Moon — are blasted outward.

Around McGetchin crater, the impact produced an extensive ejecta blanket that stretches hundreds of meters from the crater. But the physical effects extend even farther.

Researchers using NASA’s Diviner instrument found a cold region roughly four miles across surrounding the crater. At night, this area was approximately 16 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than nearby terrain.

The reason is linked to how the impact rearranged the lunar soil.

The collision disturbed and loosened the regolith, reducing its density. Because this modified material does not retain heat in the same way as more compact lunar soil, the surrounding area cools differently after sunset.

This means the impact left a thermal signature considerably larger than the crater that initially revealed it.

A Rare Chance to Study Fresh Lunar Geology

Most lunar craters are ancient.

The Moon has no substantial atmosphere, active global geological recycling or liquid-water erosion comparable to Earth’s. As a result, impact scars can remain visible for extremely long periods.

But that persistence also creates a scientific problem.

Older craters have been exposed to micrometeorite bombardment, solar radiation and other processes that gradually modify their surfaces. Determining exactly what happened immediately after an impact becomes more difficult as time passes.

McGetchin is different.

Because scientists can identify approximately when it formed and have LRO observations from before and after the event, they can investigate the immediate physical consequences of a large impact while many of its signatures remain relatively fresh.

That makes the crater a useful reference point for understanding how impact cratering changes lunar landscapes.

What It Could Mean for Future Lunar Exploration

The discovery also has implications beyond lunar geology.

NASA and other space agencies are planning increasingly sophisticated robotic and human activities on and around the Moon. Understanding how lunar impacts modify the surface is therefore relevant to future exploration.

The thermal disturbance around McGetchin demonstrates that an impact can influence the physical properties of lunar soil well beyond the crater itself. NASA researchers note that such changes could affect how rover wheels interact with the surface.

For future lunar infrastructure, understanding the relationship between impacts, loose regolith, surface stability and thermal behavior could become increasingly important.

The finding also reinforces the value of long-term orbital monitoring. A spacecraft repeatedly surveying the Moon does more than create maps — it can effectively turn the lunar surface into a time-lapse experiment.

The Moon Is More Dynamic Than It Looks

LRO’s long mission has already revealed that new impacts occur across the lunar surface.

NASA says the spacecraft’s team has identified at least 1,000 new impact craters during the mission and flagged around 100,000 additional surface changes associated with impacts and ejecta.

Most of these events are far smaller than McGetchin.

The new crater is scientifically exceptional because of its scale and the quality of the observations surrounding its formation.

The discovery also highlights a broader lesson in planetary science: sometimes the most valuable discoveries do not require a new spacecraft or an unexpected signal from deep space. They can emerge from years of carefully collected observations when researchers find a way to compare those observations more effectively.

In this case, a routine review of lunar imagery exposed evidence of a collision that occurred more than two years earlier.

McGetchin crater is now a visible record of that event — and a rare opportunity to examine, in unusually fresh detail, how a high-energy impact reshapes the Moon.

Most Searched 5 FAQs

1. What is the new crater discovered by NASA on the Moon?
The crater is called McGetchin crater. It is approximately 222 meters wide and 43 meters deep and formed on the Moon between April 11 and May 22, 2024.

2. How did NASA discover the McGetchin crater?
Researchers compared images of the Moon collected at different times by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. A bright debris pattern and surrounding dark halo revealed that a new impact had occurred in an area previously photographed by LRO.

3. How big is the McGetchin crater?
The crater is approximately 222 meters (728 feet) wide and 43 meters (141 feet) deep, making it roughly two football fields across.

4. How often does an impact this large occur on the Moon?
Scientists estimate that impacts capable of producing a crater of this size occur roughly once every century or longer, making McGetchin an unusually rare event to study.

5. Why is the new lunar crater scientifically important?
Because scientists have observations from before and after its formation, McGetchin provides an unusually fresh record of how a high-energy impact excavates material, distributes ejecta and changes the physical and thermal properties of lunar soil.