NASA’s Moon orbiter finds a 728-foot crater that wasn’t there before

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter revealed a 728-foot-wide crater that formed on the Moon in 2024, making it the largest newly formed crater ever identified in the solar system. The impact disturbed the surface for miles around it, creating a surprisingly large cold zone and showing how dramatically a single collision can reshape the lunar landscape. NASA’s Moon orbiter finds a 728-foot crater that wasn’t there before.

5, 2025, by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Narrow-Angle Camera (NAC). 24, 2025, in global images from LRO’s Wide-Angle Camera, which captures broad views with pixels the size of American football fields, scientists turned to the NAC, which takes much sharper views at about 3 feet per pixel. The NAC images, taken as LRO flew over the impact site again, revealed the crater size, shape, and how the surrounding terrain was affected by the impact that carved McGetchin.

The image covers an area that’s 3/4 mile wide. Robert Wagner, a scientist who works with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), was examining a large map of the Moon when something unusual stood out on his computer screen. He noticed an unusually bright patch surrounded by a dark halo, a pattern suggesting that material on the lunar surface had recently been disturbed.