NASA Discovered a Giant New Crater on the Moon

NASA announced that a giant crater, 222 meters wide, that had recently formed on the surface of the Moon, was discovered.

The crater called “McGetchin” is thought to have formed as a result of an asteroid or comet hitting the Moon in the spring of 2024.

Scientists state that a collision of this magnitude occurs on the Moon approximately “once every a hundred years or less.” The celestial body that forms the crater, which is approximately 222 meters wide, is estimated to be the size of a three to six-storey building.

Since the Moon does not have a protective atmosphere similar to the Earth's, objects coming from space do not slow down significantly or burn up in the atmosphere before reaching the surface.

For this reason, asteroid and comet fragments can hit the Moon's surface directly at high speeds.

The crater was discovered thanks to new images obtained from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft, which has been studying the Moon since 2009.

NASA researcher Robert Wagner noticed the remarkable formation while examining a new scan of the Moon's surface.

In the LRO images, the crater appeared as a “large bright spot” with a dark ring around it.

Investigations revealed that this formation, which had not been found in the region before, was the result of a major collision that occurred in 2024.

According to the research published in the journal Science Advances, McGetchin is the largest yet discovered among the new craters in the Solar System whose formation can be dated to the recent period with observational data.

There are countless craters on the Moon's surface that are much larger than McGetchin. However, most of them bear traces of collisions that occurred millions or even billions of years ago.

What makes McGetchin special for scientists is that its formation can be traced to a very recent date.