Something slammed into the Moon in 2024, and NASA just revealed the scar. Here is what hit it, how big it is and why Artemis planners care.
NASA says McGetchin is the largest newly formed crater ever found in the solar system. Two papers in Science Advances described it on Sept. 15 and 16, 2026.
The crater is 728 feet across, about two football fields. At 141 feet deep, NASA says it could hold three school buses stacked vertically.
The impact happened between April 11 and May 22, 2024. No telescope caught the flash; the scar sat in orbiter data for months. This is the Moon in Aug. 2024.
A comet or asteroid chunk the size of a three- to six-story building did it. Scientists estimate a hit this big lands on the Moon about once a century.
LRO imaging specialist Robert Wagner spotted a bright blotch with a dark halo while comparing before-and-after Moon maps in 2025. He dropped everything.
LRO has circled the Moon since 2009. Its team has found at least 1,000 new craters and flagged about 100,000 other surface changes from impacts.
LRO's Diviner instrument found a 4-mile-wide zone around the crater that is about 16°F colder at night. The blast fluffed up the soil, so it holds less heat.
The LROC team saw surface disturbed over 60 miles (100 km) away. Long-lived Moon gear must survive distant debris, and loose soil can affect rover wheels.
The crater honors the late lunar scientist Tom McGetchin. It sits near the Moon's equator on the eastern edge, far too small for backyard telescopes.
Launched June 18, 2009, LRO keeps mapping the Moon. Future papers will pin down how hard the space rock hit, and the next new crater may already be out there.