The Moon has been taking hits for billions of years, but one of its newest scars managed to escape notice entirely. An asteroid or comet fragment slammed into the lunar surface in 2024, carving out a crater wider than two football fields without being spotted at the time. It was only months later, buried among millions of images, that scientists realized something extraordinary had happened. NASA‘s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has now helped researchers identify the crater, making it the largest known impact crater formed in the Solar System in recent times.
A massive lunar scar
According to a report by AP News, the crater, named after late lunar scientist Thomas McGetchin, measures about 728 feet (222 meters) across and reaches as much as 141 feet (43 meters) deep. This makes it larger than Rome’s Colosseum and roughly three times the size of the previous record-holder discovered by the LRO about a decade ago. The report also states that the scale of the event is particularly striking because impacts this large are thought to occur only about once every 132 years. Scientists therefore see the newly discovered crater as an unusually valuable opportunity to study how the Moon’s surface changes after a major collision.The Moon is covered with impact marks from ancient collisions, including some of the largest craters in the Solar System. One enormous lunar basin stretches more than 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) across. The newly discovered feature is far smaller, but its recent formation gives researchers something those ancient craters cannot: a chance to study an impact almost as it happened, adds the AP News report.
The impact went unnoticed
The collision occurred on the Moon’s near side in 2024, but neither Earth-based nor space-based telescopes detected it in real time. The first clue was hiding in the LRO’s enormous archive of imagery. Wide-angle photographs taken around the time of the impact were not recognized as significant until August 2025, when researchers identified the newly formed feature.The spacecraft later returned to the area and captured higher-resolution images. Those observations helped scientists confirm the crater’s size, shape and connection to a recent impact, with the discovery finalized earlier this year. The collision also disturbed an unexpectedly large area. Material from the impact was thrown across more than 66 miles (100 kilometers) of lunar terrain, giving scientists a detailed look at how debris moves across the surface.
The Moon’s surface is constantly changing
A second study found a roughly 4-mile-wide (7-kilometer-wide) cold region surrounding the crater. Researchers believe the feature is linked to changes in the Moon’s upper layer of soil, known as regolith. The findings add to evidence that the lunar surface is being reshaped more quickly than once believed. Data from numerous craters found by the LRO indicate that the Moon’s upper inch of soil can be overturned by ejected material about every 80,000 years. hat also means the famous footprints left behind by Apollo astronauts are not permanent. Over geological timescales, fresh impacts and shifting lunar soil will eventually erase them.
Preparing for future Moon missions
The discovery could have practical value beyond understanding lunar geology. As NASA works toward establishing a sustained human presence on the Moon, scientists need to understand how often powerful impacts occur and how far their debris can travel.Researchers are now looking at the potential risk of ejecta from future impacts reaching a lunar base. Understanding those patterns could help engineers design structures capable of withstanding, or reducing the effects of, debris thrown up by collisions. The crater may have appeared suddenly, but its discovery offers scientists a rare glimpse into the Moon’s ongoing transformation, and a useful warning for those preparang to live there.Images Courtesy: istock and AP News