GoKawiilNASA's LRO Discovers Rare 728-Foot-Wide Crater on the Moon
NASA scientist Robert Wagner discovered a massive new lunar crater while performing a routine data check on imagery from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The impact, likely caused by an object roughly the size of a six-story building sometime between April and May 2024, created a crater 728 feet wide and 141 feet deep, the largest fresh impact site the orbiter has ever recorded.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
Impacts of this scale are exceedingly rare, giving scientists an unusual opportunity to study how the moon's surface changes in near real time. Since the moon lacks an atmosphere to erode or hide such scars, tracking new craters helps researchers understand impact frequency and refine estimates of risks for future lunar missions and infrastructure.
- A six-story-building-sized object struck the moon between April 11 and May 22, 2024.
- The resulting crater is 728 feet wide and 141 feet deep, the largest new one ever found by LRO.
- LRO has cataloged about 1,000 new impact craters over 17 years, but only detects impacts 30 feet wide or larger.
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See Celestron NexStar 130SLT Telescope on Amazon → Affiliate link — we may earn a commission on purchases, at no extra cost to you. Product picked by AI based on this article; it is not a tested recommendation.Source: cnet.com — Joe Hindy, 2026-09-17
Published there as: “A NASA Scientist Found a Huge New Crater on the Moon by Accident”
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