Scientists recently made a groundbreaking discovery of a massive crater on the moon caused by a significant impact that occurred two years ago, initially going unnoticed. This crater, measuring 222 meters across and up to 43 meters deep, is the largest known impact crater in the solar system from recent times.
Such a rare event is estimated to happen once every 132 years, providing valuable insights as NASA plans to establish a base for astronauts on the moon. The researchers described this discovery as a statistically uncommon and once-in-a-lifetime observation in their studies published in the journal Science Advances.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) detected the crater on the moon’s near side in May 2024 shortly after its formation due to a fragment from an asteroid or comet. The impact was not observed in real-time by telescopes on Earth or in space.
Named after Thomas McGetchin, a former director of Houston’s Lunar and Planetary Institute, the crater is a new addition to the moon’s history of impact craters, some of which are among the largest in the solar system.
The impact churned the lunar surface for over 100 kilometers, ejecting dust and rocky soil at unexpected angles. Mark Robinson, the chief scientist for LRO’s cameras at Intuitive Machines, noted this phenomenon in one of the studies he led.
A separate study revealed a cold spot around the crater, indicating a disturbance in the moon’s topsoil. David Paige, a co-author from the University of California, Los Angeles, likened this process to gardening, describing impacts as a means to disturb and rearrange the moon’s surface material.
Continued observations by the LRO have shown that the moon’s top two centimeters of soil undergo overturning every 80,000 years due to ejected material, a faster process than previously believed. Contrary to popular belief, the footprints left by Apollo moonwalkers will not endure for eternity but will erode over time.
The next phase of research involves assessing the risk of crater material reaching NASA’s future moon base, aiming to design structures resilient enough to mitigate potential damage.