Moon took a massive hit: Why nobody noticed this giant crater at first

Crater surprise

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has found a fresh crater on the Moon measuring about 728 feet wide and 141 feet deep. Scientists say it is the largest known recent lunar impact crater, yet the collision itself slipped past telescopes when a space rock struck in May 2024.

Debris blast

The impact did far more than punch a hole in the lunar surface. Researchers found that dust and rock were hurled across an area extending more than 100 km, while Mark Robinson said material was ejected at unexpectedly high angles, offering scientists a rare look at how violent impacts rearrange the Moon.

Hidden impact

A collision powerful enough to carve a 222-metre-wide hole into the Moon went unnoticed for more than a year. LRO had actually photographed the region after the May 2024 impact, but the evidence remained buried in a vast stream of spacecraft data until scientists spotted the crater in August 2025.

Base warning

The discovery could matter when humans return to the Moon. Researchers now want to calculate how far debris from an impact of this scale could travel toward a future lunar base. Mark Robinson said those findings could help engineers design structures capable of better withstanding debris from future impacts.