New Moon Crater Captured Within Weeks of 2024 Impact

A bright gleam on the Moon's surface stopped a NASA specialist mid-scroll through routine satellite images in October 2025. What Robert Wagner spotted wasn't just another crater, it was fresh evidence of an asteroid or comet strike that happened sometime between April 11 and May 22, 2024.

The McGetchin crater, as scientists named it, measures 222 meters across and 43 meters deep on the eastern edge of the Moon's near side. No telescope caught the actual collision, but the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's before-and-after images pinned down the event to a seven-week window.

What makes this discovery special is its timing. Most "fresh" lunar craters can still be hundreds of millions of years old. McGetchin is so new that scientists can study it before space weathering, the slow bombardment of solar wind and tiny meteorites, begins erasing its story.

The crater's brightness comes from excavated rock and dust thrown across the surface during impact. This material came from more than 20 meters below ground, where it hadn't yet darkened from billions of years of exposure. The debris pattern spans far beyond the crater itself, creating rays that stand out against the weathered terrain around it.

Wagner found the crater by comparing images of the same lunar region taken under similar lighting. Unchanged features appear grey in these comparisons, while differences pop out as bright or dark spots. The McGetchin pattern was too large and organized to ignore.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been mapping the Moon since 2009, building an archive that makes discoveries like this possible. Its cameras work as a team: wide-angle lenses scan broad areas to spot changes, while narrow-angle cameras zoom in for detailed measurements.

McGetchin sits at a boundary between two different types of lunar terrain, dark volcanic basalt and brighter highland crust. The impact cut through both, giving scientists a violent but useful cross-section of layers they couldn't see before. The southeastern ejecta looks darker than other sections, possibly showing where the impact mixed both rock types.

Why This Inspires

This discovery shows how patient observation reveals sudden change. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter quietly photographed the same regions for 16 years before catching this moment. That persistence just gave scientists a fresh laboratory for studying impacts, something they rarely get to examine before time erases the details.

The crater's walls average 24 degrees but reach nearly 40 degrees in places, with a rim standing about eight meters above the previous surface. NASA announced the findings in September 2026, alongside two research papers that turn one bright spot into a record of cosmic violence frozen in time.

A single watchful eye and years of stored images just revealed the Moon's newest scar while it's still gleaming.