Scientists Discover Massive Crater on the Moon

Scientists have found a massive crater on the moon, significantly larger than the Roman Colosseum. The crater formed two years ago from a powerful impact that initially went unnoticed.

The steep-sided crater measures about 728 feet across, which is the length of two football fields, and reaches up to 141 feet deep, equivalent to three vertically stacked yellow school buses, according to NASA. This is the largest known impact crater formed in the solar system in recent times.

Researchers estimate that such a large-scale event occurs only once every 132 years. This rare observation offers valuable information as NASA prepares to establish a lunar base for astronauts.

The scientists noted, “This event constitutes a statistically rare, effectively once-in-a-lifetime observation,” in one of two studies published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.

Photos from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) reveal the moon’s surface before and after the crater was identified in May 2024. The LRO detected the impact between April 11 and May 22, 2024, shortly after a fragment of an asteroid or comet struck the moon.

The moon strike escaped real-time detection by terrestrial and space telescopes. LRO’s wide-angle images went unidentified amid a flood of data until August 2025. Last fall, the spacecraft captured more detailed images, and the discovery was confirmed early this year.

The crater, named after the late Thomas McGetchin, a former director of Houston’s Lunar and Planetary Institute, is three times larger than the previous record-holder found by the LRO a decade ago. The moon, pockmarked since ancient times, hosts some of the solar system’s largest impact craters, including one stretching over 1,500 miles across.

During this event, the lunar surface was churned for more than 66 miles. Dust and rocky soil were ejected at a higher angle than anticipated, according to Mark Robinson, chief scientist for the LRO’s cameras at Intuitive Machines and lead author of one of the studies.

A separate study identified a 4-mile-wide cold spot around the crater, indicating a loosening of the moon’s topsoil. Co-author David Paige from the University of California, Los Angeles, compared it to soil gardening.

“We’re now thinking of impacts as a way to garden the regolith — churning the sediments and putting stuff above that’s usually below the surface,” Paige stated.

Since 2009, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has orbited the moon, providing close-up views of its surface as the space agency plans to send astronauts back. The LRO’s crater discoveries since its launch have shown that the moon’s surface is being overturned faster than previously thought, every 80,000 years, explained Robinson.

Contrary to the belief that the Apollo moonwalkers’ footprints would last eternally, they will “definitely be long gone in that time frame,” Robinson noted in an email.

The next step involves calculating the risk of ejected crater material affecting NASA’s planned moon base. “That information will help engineers harden structures so one won’t have to worry about damage, or maybe worry less,” Robinson added.