🌅 Astronomers Spotted a New Crater on the Moon

SOURCE

Robinson et al. (2026)

WHAT TO KNOW

• An asteroid or comet the size of a three-story building smashed into the Moon sometime between April 11 and May 22, 2024, leaving a massive new crater 728 feet wide and 141 feet deep. The newly identified McGetchin crater, which was spotted by a researcher working on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, is surrounded by a bright carpet of ejecta—rock and dust that spread out in all directions when the impact occurred—and a roughly 4.3-mile-wide “cold spot” that’s around 16 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the surrounding surface at night. Scientists say the temperature dropoff is caused by the disruption of the upper layers of lunar soil from the impact, which loosened the dirt and caused it to retain less heat. NASA says McGetchin is the largest newly formed crater ever spotted in the solar system.

WHY IT MATTERS

• Unlike Earth, the Moon has no atmosphere to slow objects hurling toward its surface. Consequently, the lunar surface is full of craters from asteroid and comet impacts—astronomers estimate around 140 mini fridge-sized objects slam into the Moon each year—however, few are as large as McGetchin (NASA describes the impact that created McGetchin as a “once-in-a-century event”). The crater will likely become the subject of numerous scientific studies in the coming years.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• Since 2009, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has continuously circled and surveyed the Moon, mapping its surface, measuring its temperature, and identifying new impact craters. The orbiter has identified at least 1,000 new craters and 100,000 surface changes over the past 17 years, including the 60-foot wide impact crater left by a SpaceX rocket last month.