NASA Orbiter Confirms Rare 728-Foot Lunar Impact Crater
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has confirmed a 728-foot-wide moon crater formed by a 2024 impact, an event scientists estimate occurs roughly once every 132 years.
The impact was not observed in real time. According to Engadget, NASA scientist Robert Wagner noticed a change on the moon's surface in October 2025 while reviewing images from the orbiter's wide-angle camera. Comparing photographs taken before and after the event, he confirmed that a new crater had formed. The crater was later officially named after the scientist Tom McGetchin.
The McGetchin crater is not the largest on the moon. That distinction belongs to the South Pole-Aitken Basin, which measures 1,550 miles in diameter. Most lunar impacts, however, are small, and most of them are ancient. The new crater is 728 feet wide and 141 feet deep. Scientists estimate that an impact of this magnitude occurs only about once every 132 years.
Months after Wagner identified the change, the orbiter's narrow-angle camera flew over the site again and photographed it in December 2025, producing the images that show the crater's fresh appearance.
A team of scientists that has already studied the crater found a four-mile-wide area around it that is roughly 16 degrees Fahrenheit cooler at night. In their study, the researchers concluded that the spot cools because the impact disturbed the regolith, the upper layer of the lunar surface, making it less dense and less able to retain heat. NASA notes that these cooler patches could affect how rover wheels interact with the surface, both near new craters and in the areas around them.
Engadget reported that the rarity of the event makes further studies of the McGetchin crater likely.
Editor's Summary
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has identified a new 728-foot-wide crater on the moon, created by an impact between April and May 2024 and named after scientist Tom McGetchin. Scientists estimate that an event of this size occurs roughly once every 132 years, making the site a rare target for study. A four-mile-wide patch of surrounding surface is about 16 degrees Fahrenheit cooler at night because the impact loosened the regolith, a finding NASA says could matter for rover operations near new craters.