A Fresh Scar on the Moon: Newly Discovered Crater Reveals Recent Impact

The Moon is constantly being bombarded by traveling space rocks, its surface recording each collision in the form of craters that never fade in the absence of wind or surface water. Most lunar craters that we know of date back millions, if not billions, of years, making evidence of a recent impact a rare glimpse into a process that is shaping the Moon today. Scientists identified a new crater on the Moon that formed in the late spring of 2024, revealing the violent aftermath of a recent collision on the lunar surface. Using images taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnoissance Orbiter (LRO), the team behind the discovery analyzed changes before and after the impact to study the rare event. The findings were presented at the 57th Lunar and Planetary Sciences Meeting in March, and can help scientists better understand how craters form on the Moon and elsewhere in the solar system. The newly discovered crater measures around 738 feet (225 meters) across the lunar surface. That makes it the largest impact crater to have formed during NASA’s LRO 17-year-mission. The previous record holder was a 229 feet wide (70 meters) crater, which was discovered in 2013 by comparing before and after images of