NASA Discovers New Crater on the Moon, Ejecta Visible

NASA has recently discovered crater on the Moon, using its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The LRO found a crater which is 728ft wide, over two football fields in diameter. This crater was caused by a comet or asteroid the size of a three to six story building impacting at approximately 15km/s (33,500mph or Mach 43).

Because the Moon has almost no atmosphere, the object hit at full hypervelocity speeds, creating the huge crater. The crater was discovered in late 2025 by a imaging specialist for the LRO. It was named McGetchin crater in honor of Apollo program lunar scientist Thomas McGetchin.

This crater was the largest recent impact on record, and scientist estimate an impact of this size only hits the moon approximately every century.

The lighter material emanating from the impact sight is called ejecta, material ejected from the collision site and dispersed along the lunar surface.