NASA Spacecraft Discovers Fresh Moon Crater Bigger Than the Roman Colosseum

Key facts

• NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter discovered a crater on the moon's near side, formed between April 11 and May 22, 2024, measuring about 728 feet across and up to 141 feet deep, larger than the Roman Colosseum.
• It is the solar system's biggest known impact crater carved in recent times, three times bigger than the previous record-holder found by the LRO a decade ago, and such an event is estimated to occur only once every 132 years.
• The crater, named after late Thomas McGetchin, former director of Houston's Lunar and Planetary Institute, was formed by an asteroid or comet fragment the size of a three- to six-story building, and the impact churned the lunar surface for more than 66 miles.
• The crater was spotted in LRO images only in August 2025, with confirmation early this year, and two studies on it appeared in the journal Science Advances.
• A separate study identified a 4-mile-wide cold spot around the crater, and LRO findings show the moon's top inch of soil is overturned every 80,000 years, faster than previously thought.
• Mark Robinson, chief scientist for the LRO cameras at Intuitive Machines, said the next step is to calculate the risk of ejected crater material striking NASA's planned moon base.