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ScienceArticleArchive no. SC-0002 · · updated · Reading time: 2 min

LRO spacecraft discovers a 222-metre crater on the Moon, formed in 2024

On 16 September NASA announced the discovery of McGetchin, a 222-metre-wide lunar crater gouged out in spring 2024: the largest newly formed crater ever spotted in the Solar System. An impact of this size is expected only about once every 132 years; it still took more than a year for anyone to notice.

Primary source: NASA Science, article of 16 September 2026Verified in French
Subcategories
Black-and-white overhead view of McGetchin crater, a dark hole surrounded by a wide bright area of ejected debris, on lunar ground dotted with small craters
McGetchin crater photographed by LRO’s high-resolution camera; the image is 1,300 m wide, north is up.NASA/GSFC/Intuitive Machines, public domain (NASA) · source

The facts

On 16 September 2026, NASA and the teams behind its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) presented a brand-new lunar crater in two papers in the journal Science Advances. Named McGetchin, it measures 222 metres in diameter and 43 metres deep. It formed between 11 April and 22 May 2024, when a comet or asteroid roughly 10 to 20 metres across, the size of a three- to six-storey building according to NASA, struck the Moon.

According to the team of Mark Robinson, the study’s lead author, it is the largest newly formed crater discovered in the Solar System. According to models, an impact of this magnitude occurs on the Moon only about once every 132 years.

The crater lies on the eastern edge of the Moon, at the boundary between a lunar mare and the highlands. Its walls are steep, with an average slope of 24° that reaches nearly 40° in places. According to Clubic, disturbance of the terrain has been spotted out to about a hundred kilometres from the point of impact.

The context

LRO has been orbiting the Moon for more than seventeen years. It monitors the Moon every month, notably with its wide-angle camera. By comparing two image mosaics taken years apart, software highlights everything that has changed. That is how Robert Wagner, an image-processing specialist at Intuitive Machines, spotted a bright patch ringed with dark on 24 October 2025. “I just stopped, dropped everything, and started looking into what that spot was,” he recalls.

Artist’s impression of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft orbiting above the grey surface of the Moon
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, in orbit around the Moon since 2009 (artist’s impression).NASA, public domain (NASA) · source

The spacecraft’s high-resolution camera, which can make out details of about one metre, then measured the crater’s exact shape. The LRO team has already catalogued at least 1,000 new impact craters since the start of the mission. The crater is named after Thomas McGetchin, director of the Lunar and Planetary Institute from 1977, whose 1973 model of ejecta distribution is still used as a reference.

Black-and-white oblique view of McGetchin crater, showing its steep walls, its rim and the bright streaks of debris around it
McGetchin seen at an angle, after the spacecraft rolled 51° to the east, under low-angle lighting.NASA/GSFC/Intuitive Machines, public domain (NASA) · source

Why it matters

With no atmosphere to slow them down, rocks from space hit the Moon at full force. Observing “before and after” views of such a rare impact makes it possible to test the models that estimate how often meteorites fall and how a crater is excavated.

The impact also altered the ground well beyond the hole. LRO’s Diviner thermal instrument detected a zone about 6 kilometres wide around the crater that is about 9 °C colder at night than its surroundings. According to the second Science Advances paper, signed by the Diviner team (Powell et al.), the impact loosened the regolith, making it less able to retain heat. According to NASA, this kind of change could affect how the wheels of future lunar vehicles behave.

Archive note

  • McGetchin crater formed between 11 April and 22 May 2024, discovered on 24 October 2025, announced on 16 September 2026.
  • 222 m in diameter and 43 m deep; an impact estimated to occur about once every 132 years.
  • Two papers in Science Advances: the discovery (Robinson et al.) and the cold zone measured by Diviner (Powell et al.).

Sources

  1. NASA Science, NASA's Moon Orbiter Spots New, 'Once-in-Century' Moon Crater, 16 Sept 2026 (primary source)
  2. Science Advances (Robinson et al.), A new 222-m diameter lunar crater, 16 Sept 2026 (primary source)
  3. Science Advances (Powell et al.), New lunar crater reveals extensive distal regolith modification, 16 Sept 2026 (primary source)
  4. Lunar and Planetary Institute (USRA), NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Discovers a New 222-m Diameter Lunar Crater, 16 Sept 2026
  5. NASA, Astronomy Picture of the Day, A New Lunar Crater: McGetchin, 23 Sept 2026
  6. Ciel et Espace, Le nouveau cratère lunaire a été identifié par un amateur français, 17 Sept 2026
  7. Futura, « Cela n'arrive qu'une fois par siècle » : la Nasa vient de découvrir sur la Lune le plus grand cratère récent du Système solaire !, 17 Sept 2026
  8. franceinfo (avec AFP), Un « événement qui n'arrive qu'une fois par siècle » : un imposant cratère de 222 mètres découvert à la surface de la Lune par la Nasa, 17 Sept 2026
  9. Clubic, Ce cratère de 222 mètres s'est formé sur la Lune sans que personne ne le voie, 18 Sept 2026
  10. Enerzine, Lune, la NASA découvre un cratère de 222 mètres né d'un impact rarissime, 18 Sept 2026

Image and video credits

  • McGetchin crater photographed by LRO’s high-resolution camera; the image is 1,300 m wide, north is up.: NASA/GSFC/Intuitive Machines, public domain (NASA) · source
  • NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, in orbit around the Moon since 2009 (artist’s impression).: NASA, public domain (NASA) · source
  • McGetchin seen at an angle, after the spacecraft rolled 51° to the east, under low-angle lighting.: NASA/GSFC/Intuitive Machines, public domain (NASA) · source

Corrections

  • : We wrote that the walls had a “median” slope of 24°; it is an average slope, which reaches nearly 40° in places.
  • : We wrote that traces of the ejecta could be seen more than 120 km from the crater; our sources report disturbance of the terrain out to about a hundred kilometres. We have removed two details we could not verify (a previous lunar record of 70 m, a 13 m boulder on the southern rim) and the date of 2010 for the wide-angle camera’s monthly monitoring.
  • : Updated: the second *Science Advances* paper (Powell et al., Diviner instrument) is now cited and added to the sources; French-language sources added.

All corrections on the site →

— The Bunker archivists

Method: at least 3 sources including the official one, cross-checked with the help of an AI (Claude), checked and approved by a human on 28 Sept 2026 in the French original; this English version is an AI translation. Our method
Spotted a mistake? Report it: we correct in public.

Read the original in French