Asteroid hit the moon and flung rocks 120 kilometres from the crater
· New Scientist
A newly formed crater on the moon is teaching us about our nearest neighbour’s complex geology. The crater, formed by an asteroid impact in 2024, is the largest that we’ve ever watched form in real time.
It was first spotted last year, when researchers compared sets of images taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in both 2024 and 2025, and was named McGetchin crater. According to models of how often impacts occur on the moon, one this big – about 222 metres across – is only expected to occur about once every 132 years.
Visit asg-reflektory.pl for more information.
While the moon has many larger craters, watching one as it forms and evolves presents a unique opportunity to learn about the lunar surface and its geology. “Cratering is probably the most common process that happens in the solar system, so we spend a lot of time trying to understand how a new crater will modify a surface and watching that degrade over time,” says Tyler Powell at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. “Having a baseline for a pristine crater that can serve as our calibration point for how these processes start is really incredible.”
Advertisement
if( window?.adverts?.addToArray ) { window.adverts.addToArray( { "pos": "mid-article-slot" } ); } Read moreSpaceX crash site on moon revealed by South Korean orbiter
Powell and his colleagues measured the surface temperature in the region around McGetchin crater, and found that the impact had formed a spot about 7 kilometres wide that is a handful of degrees colder than the rest of the area during the lunar night. These cold spots form when the lunar dust fluffs up after an impact, so it cools down faster after the sun sets.
Another team, led by Mark Robinson at Intuitive Machines in Texas, found that the impact flung dust and rocks more than 120 kilometres from the crater itself. “Over the last several years, we’ve developed this understanding that these impacts modify more than just the region right where the crater is,” says Powell. “It’s really striking that a crater can modify the lunar surface to distances far larger than the crater itself.”
This will helps us understand and study the history of the moon and other airless, cratered objects in the solar system, but it could also aid in future exploration. “If we’re trying to send rovers or astronauts or build things on the moon, we want to understand the properties of the surface,” says Powell. And watching a huge new crater form and change over time is one of the best remote probes of the surface we’ve ever had.
Journal Reference:Science Advances DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aeh9568
Journal Reference:Science Advances DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aeh7812