NASA discovers largest crater ever found on Moon

By Dean Murray

Space scientists have revealed that the Moon has been hit by an object "as big as a six-story building."

NASA revealed on Wednesday, Sept. 16, that the impact left a crater around 141 feet deep and the width of three football fields.

The "less than once-in-a-century impact" was thought to have been made by an asteroid or comet.

Robert Wagner, a scientist with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), spotted the crater during a routine data-quality check.

By comparing before-and-after images of the Moon, Wagner realized he had discovered the largest newly formed crater ever found in the solar system.

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He said: "I just stopped, dropped everything, and started looking into what that spot was."

The crater, officially named McGetchin after pioneering lunar scientist Tom McGetchin, formed on the Moon's eastern edge sometime between April 11 and May 22, 2024.

NASA said "a comet or asteroid the size of a three- to six-story building hit the surface", with scientists estimating that "an impact of this magnitude happens on the Moon about once in a century or even longer."

After Robert Wagner's discovery, scientists were able to take sharp observations of the impact, revealing the crater's size and shape, as well as how the surrounding terrain was affected.

These images also helped researchers estimate the size and force of the rock fragment that formed the new crater, details that are expected to appear in a future paper.

"It was by far the most obvious impact debris pattern I've ever seen in one of these images," Wagner said.

The findings have been reported in Science Advances this week.