The Moon Just Got a Huge New Crater
Described as a "once in a lifetime" occurrence, the impact crater was formed when an object the size of a multi-story building smashed into our cosmic neighbour.
The moon now has a massive new crater that is wider than two football fields end-to-end. The classically shaped divot is the largest recently formed one that’s been found in the entire solar system. Researchers described the new feature in the journal Science Advances, published 16 September. Analyzing impact craters on the moon helps researchers learn more about our satellite and can inform plans to send humans and technology there.
The crater came to light in October 2025 when Robert Wagner, an image-processing specialist at the aerospace company Intuitive Machines, found a large bright spot surrounded by a dark halo in photos from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) camera system. That sort of composition suggests the surface material had been disrupted. “It was by far the most obvious impact debris pattern I’ve ever seen in one of these images,” says Wagner says in a statement.
At 728 feet wide, its diameter stretches just over the length of two football fields. It’s also 141 feet deep, meaning three vertically stacked school buses could sit in it. Wagner and colleagues estimate that the feature was formed when an asteroid or comet around the size of a three- to six-story building struck the moon - an event estimated to occur just once every 132 years.
Wagner and colleagues found that ejected material disturbed the surface more than 75 miles from the crater. That, combined with the expanse of the relatively frigid area, demonstrates the far-reaching effects of incoming space rocks, which have implications for people and technology that might roam that terrain.
Researchers named the moon’s new hole for pioneering lunar scientist Tom McGetchin, who died in 1979.
