NASA spacecraft discovers a huge new crater on the moon
The crater, named McGetchin, spans 728 feet and may help scientists gauge ejecta risks for NASA’s planned lunar base.
- NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter discovered a massive new crater on the lunar surface, detailed in two studies appearing Wednesday in Science Advances, lead author Mark Robinson said.
- Named for the late Thomas McGetchin, a former director of Houston's Lunar and Planetary Institute, the crater spans about 728 feet across and is up to 141 feet deep.
- Co-Author David Paige of the University of California, Los Angeles, likens the impact to gardening, with sediments churned across more than 66 miles of the lunar surface.
- Scientists aim to calculate risks of ejected material striking NASA's planned lunar base, as such impacts occur once every 132 years, helping engineers harden structures.
- The LRO shows the lunar top inch of soil is overturned every 80,000 years, meaning Apollo moonwalkers' footprints will "definitely be long gone in that time frame," Robinson said.
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58 Articles
Bigger than the Roman Colosseum, is the result of a powerful impact two years ago
NASA has discovered the largest modern impact crater in the solar system on the Moon The 222 meter-diameter crater formed about two years ago after a <p>space debris fell. NASA has confirmed the discovery of the beginning of 2026.</p>
NASA Spots Huge New Moon Crater
Scientists have discovered a crater on the moon that's bigger than the Roman Colosseum and is the result of a powerful impact two years ago that initially went undetected. The step-sided hole—about 728 feet across and up to 141 feet deep—is the solar system's biggest knock impact crater...
NASA Orbiter Discovers Moon’s Largest Newly Formed Crater
Newly identified crater McGetchin on the Moon, about 222 meters (728 feet) across and roughly 43 meters deep, is the solar system’s largest recently formed impact crater, created in 2024 by an asteroid or comet and revealed through NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter data. Studies published in Science Advances underscore its rarity, the crater’s ejecta patterns, and the ongoing value of LRO imagery for understanding the Moon’s dynamic surface ah…
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