09/30/2026
🌕 Somewhere on the Moon, there's a crater that wasn't there two years ago, and it's the biggest one scientists have ever caught forming in real time.
A NASA researcher spotted it during what started as a routine check of lunar images. After comparing old and new photos, he realized he'd found the largest newly formed crater ever recorded anywhere in the solar system. It's now officially named McGetchin, after a pioneering lunar scientist, and it was carved out sometime between April and May of 2024, when a comet or asteroid roughly the size of a five-story building slammed into the surface.
The crater stretches about 728 feet across, roughly the length of two football fields, and drops 141 feet deep, enough to stack three school buses. 🔭 Scientists estimate that an impact this size only happens on the Moon about once a century.
There's more to it than just the hole itself. Researchers also found a patch of ground about four miles wide around the crater that stays noticeably cooler at night than the surrounding terrain, evidence of just how much a single impact can reshape the nearby surface.
It's a good reminder that even something as familiar as the Moon still has surprises waiting to be noticed; sometimes it just takes someone looking closely enough to catch them.
Source:
Scientists have discovered a crater on the moon that's bigger than the Roman Colosseum, the result of a powerful impact two years ago.
