Lunar orbiter spots ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ new crater on the moon

NASA Goddard/Intuitive Machines/Robert Wagner

The moon’s surface experienced a violent encounter with a comet or an asteroid — and has a massive battle scar to prove it.

The space rock, estimated to be the size of building reaching between three and six stories, slammed into the moon’s eastern edge two years ago, between April 11 and May 22, 2024, although researchers didn’t notice it at the time. The impact left behind a crater measuring 728 feet (222 meters) wide, or just over the length of two football fields. Spotted last year, the crater also reaches 141 feet (43 meters) deep — room for three school buses stacked atop one another.

Scientists said the lunar feature marks the largest newly formed crater ever found in the solar system since humans have monitored such features, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances .

“Crater production models indicate that an impact of this magnitude is expected to occur only once every 132 years on the Moon,” the authors wrote in the study. “As such, this event constitutes a statistically rare, effectively once-in-a-lifetime observation.”

The study authors named the feature McGetchin crater in honor of Dr. Thomas McGetchin, the late Apollo-era lunar scientist who contributed to a greater understanding of impact cratering on the moon.

Before this discovery, the largest contemporary impact crater found on the moon was an estimated 230 feet (70 meters) in diameter.

Unlike Earth, the moon’s surface is heavily cratered with no protective atmosphere to shield it from the bombardment of space rocks over billions of years.

Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images

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Spotting a new crater among the multitude of existing features seems a bit like finding a needle in a haystack, but a NASA orbiter that has been circling the moon for more than 17 years helped scientists zero in on the large bright spot encircled by a dark halo.

Scientists have used data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to study the impact of the crater and just how much the collision disrupted the surrounding area. The insights reveal that the moon — a high-priority destination for NASA and other space agencies when considering sustained human exploration — is still a hub of impact activity that needs monitoring as it could be a threat to any potential people and infrastructure on the surface.

“I am surprised almost every day when I come into work and look at the latest images from the Moon — even after 17 years of operation,” wrote study coauthor Mark Robinson, principal investigator for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera at Texas-based aerospace company Intuitive Machines, in an email.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has been a workhorse since launching in 2009, using seven instruments to create maps of the moon’s temperature, surface composition, topography and radiation. It moves in a loop from pole to pole, with two cameras to capture imagery 60 miles (97 kilometers) from the lunar surface.

As a result, the spacecraft has also enabled scientists to track at least 1,000 new impact craters and 100,000 other surface changes, including landslides and even landers that crash into the lunar surface.

Tiny space rocks too small to see create many of the moon’s pockmarks and craters. About 140 new craters that appear on the moon each year — some of which can span about 30 feet (9 meters) across — are the work of space rocks measuring about 43 inches (109 centimeters) wide.

But every few years as scientists scan detailed LRO images, they look for larger features by comparing new lunar maps with older versions.

Study coauthor Robert Wagner, image-processing specialist at Intuitive Machines who works with Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera data, spotted McGetchin on October 24, 2025, while looking at stacked before and after LRO images that highlight unusually dark or bright surface changes.

“I just stopped, dropped everything, and started looking into what that spot was,” Wagner said in a statement.

The process is not an easy one, given that the software LRO scientists use flags every shift connected with lighting or shadows. The team looks at every detection and evaluates whether it’s real, or a false positive, Robinson said.

But McGetchin stood out to Wagner.

“It was by far the most obvious impact debris pattern I’ve ever seen in one of these images,” he said.

To confirm the discovery, the team turned to sharp, close-up images captured by the orbiter’s Narrow-Angle Camera, which also enabled researchers to measure the crater’s shape, size and impact to the surrounding terrain.

A separate team of scientists analyzed data from LRO’s Diviner thermal instrument, which revealed an area spanning 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) wide surrounding the crater that registers 16 degrees Fahrenheit cooler at night compared with the rest of the region. They shared their results in a second paper published Wednesday in Science Advances .

“Previous Diviner observations have shown that fresh lunar impact craters are often associated with ‘cold spots,’” wrote lead study author Tyler Powell, planetary scientist and postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, in an email.

NASA Goddard/Intuitive Machines

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“Their large extent indicates that impacts can modify the surface far beyond the crater itself,” Powell said. “We’re extremely lucky it formed during the lifetime of the LRO mission and that we are able to observe the region both before and after impact.”

Scientists believe the cold spots occur due to disturbances in the lunar surface, “creating a fluffier layer that is less able to retain heat throughout the night,” Powell added.

Tracking lunar surface changes is crucial for determining just how often space rocks slam into the moon and how asteroids break apart as they strike a rocky body, Robinson said.

Studying new craters can also provide insights into what happens during the moment of impact, he said.

Understanding the rate and magnitude of such impacts on the moon could be critical for future planning of a moon base and other infrastructure as NASA’a Artemis program works toward returning humans to the lunar surface for long-term exploration.

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Impact craters have also helped shape the surfaces of the rocky planets and moons across our solar system, said Jeff Andrews-Hanna, a professor in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona. Andrews-Hanna was not involved with either study.

“An impact like that should be rare on the Moon, but rare events do happen. The object that made this crater may have been close in size to the Chelyabinsk meteor that exploded over Russia,” Andrews-Hanna wrote in an email, referring to an asteroid that entered Earth’s atmosphere over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013.

About 55 to 65 feet (17 to 20 meters) in size , the Chelyabinsk asteroid exploded in the air, releasing 20 to 30 times more energy than that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, and generating brightness greater than the sun. Debris from the space rock damaged more than 7,000 buildings and injured more than 1,000 people .

“If something like that made it through our atmosphere and struck the surface of the Earth, it wouldn’t be catastrophic, but we would certainly take notice,” Andrews-Hanna said. “These events serve to remind us of how vulnerable we are, and how important it is to catalog and track near-Earth asteroids that could potentially hit the Earth.”

美国宇航局戈达德太空飞行中心/直觉机器公司/罗伯特·瓦格纳

月球表面曾与彗星或小行星发生过剧烈碰撞——并留下了巨大的战斗痕迹来证明这一点。

这颗据估计大小相当于三到六层楼的太空岩石，于两年前（2024年4月11日至5月22日之间）撞击了月球东缘，但当时研究人员并未发现。撞击留下了一个直径728英尺（222米）的陨石坑，相当于两个足球场的长度。该陨石坑于去年被发现，其深度达141英尺（43米），足以容纳三辆校车叠放在一起。

科学家表示，根据周三发表在《科学进展》杂志上的一项研究，这一月球地貌是自人类开始监测此类地貌以来在太阳系中发现的最大的新形成陨石坑。

“陨石坑形成模型表明，这种规模的撞击预计每132年才会在月球上发生一次，”作者在研究中写道。“因此，这次事件在统计学上极为罕见，实际上是一生中仅此一次的观测。”

该研究的作者将该地貌命名为麦克格钦陨石坑，以纪念已故的阿波罗时代月球科学家托马斯·麦克格钦博士，他为人们更好地了解月球上的撞击坑做出了贡献。

在此次发现之前，月球上发现的最大的当代撞击坑直径估计为 230 英尺（70 米）。

与地球不同，月球表面布满陨石坑，没有保护性的大气层来抵御数十亿年来太空岩石的撞击。

Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images

美国宇航局公布了“阿尔忒弥斯3号”任务的宇航员名单，他们将踏上重返月球之旅的下一个重要阶段。

在众多现有地貌中发现一个新的陨石坑似乎有点像大海捞针，但美国宇航局的一颗绕月飞行器已经运行了 17 年多，帮助科学家们锁定了被暗晕包围的大亮点。

科学家利用月球勘测轨道飞行器的数据，研究了撞击坑的影响以及撞击对周围区域造成的破坏程度。研究结果表明，月球——作为美国宇航局和其他航天机构在考虑持续载人探索时高度重视的目标——仍然是撞击活动频繁的区域，需要密切监测，因为这可能对月球表面的潜在人员和基础设施构成威胁。

“我几乎每天上班看到来自月球的最新图像时都会感到惊讶——即使已经运行了 17 年，”该研究的合著者、总部位于德克萨斯州的航空航天公司 Intuitive Machines 的月球勘测轨道飞行器相机首席研究员马克·罗宾逊在一封电子邮件中写道。

自2009年发射以来，月球勘测轨道飞行器（LRO）一直是月球探测的主力军，它利用七种仪器绘制月球的温度、表面成分、地形和辐射图。它沿南北方向环形飞行，两台相机在距离月球表面60英里（97公里）处拍摄图像。

因此，该航天器还使科学家能够追踪至少 1000 个新的撞击坑和 100000 个其他表面变化，包括山体滑坡，甚至是撞击月球表面的着陆器。

月球上许多肉眼无法看到的微小太空岩石造成了月球表面的许多凹坑和陨石坑。每年月球上大约会出现140个新的陨石坑——其中一些直径可达9米左右——这些陨石坑是由直径约109厘米的太空岩石造成的。

但每隔几年，科学家们在扫描详细的月球勘测轨道飞行器图像时，会通过将新的月球地图与旧版本进行比较来寻找更大的特征。

该研究的合著者罗伯特·瓦格纳是直觉机器公司（Intuitive Machines）的图像处理专家，他负责处理月球勘测轨道飞行器相机的数据。2025 年 10 月 24 日，他在查看叠加的 LRO 前后图像时发现了麦克格钦，这些图像突出了异常暗或亮的表面变化。

“我当时就停了下来，放下手头的一切，开始调查那个地方到底是什么，”瓦格纳在一份声明中说。

鉴于LRO科学家使用的软件会标记所有与光照或阴影相关的变化，这个过程并不简单。罗宾逊说，团队会查看每一次检测结果，并评估它是真实的还是误报。

但麦克格钦给瓦格纳留下了深刻的印象。

他说：“这是我见过的这类图像中最明显的撞击碎片分布模式。”

为了确认这一发现，研究团队查看了轨道飞行器窄角相机拍摄的清晰特写图像，这些图像还使研究人员能够测量陨石坑的形状、大小以及对周围地形的影响。

另一组科学家分析了月球勘测轨道飞行器（LRO）的“探测者”（Diviner）热成像仪的数据，结果显示，陨石坑周围一个宽约6.4公里（4英里）的区域，夜间温度比该区域其他部分低16华氏度。他们将研究结果发表在周三刊登于《科学进展》（Science Advances）杂志的第二篇论文中。

“此前 Diviner 的观测表明，新鲜的月球撞击坑通常与‘冷点’有关，”该研究的主要作者、约翰·霍普金斯大学应用物理实验室的行星科学家兼博士后研究员泰勒·鲍威尔在一封电子邮件中写道。

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鲍威尔说：“撞击坑的巨大范围表明，撞击可以改变远超陨石坑本身的表面。我们非常幸运，这个陨石坑是在月球勘测轨道飞行器（LRO）任务期间形成的，因此我们能够观测到撞击前后的区域。”

科学家认为，这些冷点是由于月球表面扰动造成的，“形成了一层更蓬松的层，这层层物质在整个夜晚保持热量的能力较弱，”鲍威尔补充道。

罗宾逊说，追踪月球表面的变化对于确定太空岩石撞击月球的频率以及小行星撞击岩石天体时如何破碎至关重要。

他说，研究新形成的陨石坑还可以让我们深入了解撞击瞬间发生的事情。

了解此类撞击对月球的速率和强度对于未来规划月球基地和其他基础设施至关重要，因为 NASA 的阿尔忒弥斯计划正致力于将人类送回月球表面进行长期探索。

科学家称，由于月球上水资源不足，城市无法在月球上生存。

亚利桑那大学月球与行星实验室教授杰夫·安德鲁斯-汉纳表示，撞击坑也对塑造太阳系中岩质行星和卫星的表面形态起到了重要作用。安德鲁斯-汉纳并未参与这两项研究。

“像这样的撞击在月球上应该很少见，但罕见事件确实会发生。造成这个陨石坑的物体大小可能与2013年在俄罗斯车里雅宾斯克上空爆炸的那颗陨石相近，”安德鲁斯-汉娜在一封电子邮件中写道，她指的是一颗在2013年进入地球大气层、撞击俄罗斯车里雅宾斯克的小行星。

这颗直径约 17 至 20 米（55 至 65 英尺）的小行星车里雅宾斯克在空中爆炸，释放出的能量是投在日本广岛的原子弹的 20 至 30 倍，亮度甚至超过太阳。这颗太空岩石的碎片损坏了 7000 多座建筑物，并造成 1000 多人受伤。

“如果类似这样的天体穿过我们的大气层并撞击地球表面，虽然不会造成灾难性后果，但我们肯定会引起重视，”安德鲁斯-汉娜说。“这些事件提醒我们，我们是多么脆弱，以及对可能撞击地球的近地小行星进行编目和追踪是多么重要。”