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NASA's Moon Orbiter Has Spotted An Impact Crater That Only Happens Once A Century

Engadget • September 18, 2026 • general

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Between April 11 and May 22, 2024, a comet or asteroid roughly the size of a three- to six-story building struck the Moon, creating the largest modern-day crater in the solar system.
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) detected the new crater, named McGetchin, after scientist Robert Wagner identified surface changes in images taken in October 2025.
The McGetchin crater measures 728 feet wide and 141 feet deep, with impacts of this size estimated to occur approximately once every 132 years.
Follow-up images from December 2025 revealed a 4-mile-wide area around the crater that is about 16 degrees Fahrenheit cooler at night, prompting expectations of extensive future scientific studies.
Although significant, the McGetchin crater is not the Moon's largest; the South Pole-Aitken Basin remains the largest lunar crater at 1,550 miles in diameter.

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