New Impact Crater Spotted on the Moon

Sep 18, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro
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Using images from the LROC instrument onboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), scientists have discovered the biggest newly formed impact crater ever discovered in the Solar System. The crater, now named McGetchin, appeared on the Moon’s eastern edge in 2024.

This close-up view of McGetchin crater was taken on December 5, 2025, by the Narrow-Angle Camera (NAC) onboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Image credit: NASA Goddard / Intuitive Machines.

This close-up view of McGetchin crater was taken on December 5, 2025, by the Narrow-Angle Camera (NAC) onboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Image credit: NASA Goddard / Intuitive Machines.

Named for pioneering lunar scientist Tom McGetchin, the new crater is about 222 m (728 feet) wide and 43 m (141 feet) deep.

It formed sometime between April 11 and May 22, 2024, when a comet or asteroid the size of a three- to six-story building hit the surface.

The discovery came from a routine data check on Ocober 24, 2025.

Robert Wagner, an image-processing specialist at Intuitive Machines who works with LROC data, was scanning a global lunar map.

An unusually large bright spot ringed by a dark halo stood out, a sign that surface material had been thrown around.

“I just stopped, dropped everything, and started looking into what that spot was,” Wagner said.

Follow-up images from LRO’s sharper Narrow-Angle Camera confirmed the McGetchin crater’s size and shape.

Observations from the orbiter’s Diviner thermal instrument found a ‘cold spot’ about 6 km (4 miles) wide around the crater, roughly 9 degrees Celsius cooler at night than the surrounding terrain.

The impact fluffed up the lunar soil, making it less dense and less able to hold heat.

This shows a big impact can alter the Moon’s surface far beyond the crater rim.

“The images show that the crater exposed complex geology, inform current models of cratering mechanics, and document widespread surface changes extending more than 1,000 crater radii,” the researchers said.

The findings appear in two papers in the journal Science Advances.

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Mark S. Robinson et al. 2026. A new 222-m diameter lunar crater. Science Advances 12 (38); doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aeh7812

Tyler M. Powell et al. 2026. New lunar crater reveals extensive distal regolith modification. Science Advances 12 (38); doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aeh9568

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