ScienceBBC Sky at Night MagazineAn asteroid has smashed into the Moon, carving a record-breaking crater. NASA's got the pics to prove it
NASA has confirmed the largest newly-formed crater ever seen in our solar system on the Moon, measuring 222 metres wide and caused by an asteroid or comet impact in 2024.
McGetchin crater on the Moon is the largest newly-formed crater seen in our Solar System. It was found by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
NASA scientist Robert Wagner spotted an enormous new crater on the Moon while scanning images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the largest newly-formed crater seen in our solar system.
Named McGetchin, the crater is 222 metres wide and 43 metres deep, and is thought to have been caused by a comet or asteroid the size of a three to six storey building hitting the Moon between April and May 2024.
Scientists say an impact of this scale happens at most once a century, and the find highlights the value of continuously monitoring the Moon's surface as NASA plans a sustained human presence there.
Scientists say an impact large enough to form a crater like this only happens about once a century, so this is a rare event captured in real time by NASA's orbiter.
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