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By Tina Hesman Saey and Carolyn GramlingMarch 20, 2026 Space One possible recipe for life on Titan is a bust By Tina Hesman SaeyMarch 11, 2026 News Space In a rare event, the moon got a massive new crater The crater is 225 meters wide, a size expected only once every 139 years The moon has been collecting craters for billions of years. Now there’s a new one. Lick Observatory By Lisa Grossman 6 hours ago Share this:Share Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share on X (Opens in new window) X Print (Opens in new window) Print A once-in-a-century crater formed on the moon right under our noses. A routine search of images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter camera found a fresh crater as wide as two American football fields, planetary scientist Mark Robinson reported March 17 at the Lunar and Planetary Sciences Meeting in The Woodlands, Texas. The crater is 225 meters wide and formed in April or May 2024, Robinson said. According to predictions based on other lunar landmarks, a crater that big should form only once in 139 years. The discovery can help highlight the risks impacts pose to future astronauts. Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday. One of the first craters the orbiter spotted after it began its mission in 2009 was 70 meters wide, said Robinson, of Houston-based spaceflight company Intuitive Machines. “I used to joke with folks … that now the bar has been set, you have to find a 100-meter crater,” he said. “Now, lo and behold, we have 225 meters.” The crater seems to have formed on a boundary between the cratered and craggy lunar highlands and a wide, flat mare, which formed from liquid magma pooling on the moon’s surface. Its depth, about 43 meters on average, and its steep edges suggest it formed in strong material like solidified lava. But its shape is slightly elongated, which suggests the ground beneath the crater is not all the same, Robinson said. The crater is also surrounded by a bright blanket of ejecta — rock and dust that splashed out in all directions when the impact occurred — that extends hundreds of meters from the rim. Robinson and colleagues found other disturbances as far as 120 kilometers from the crater. That could be bad news for future moon bases. Bits of rock ejected from impacts could hit lunar habitats at high speeds from very far away. Buildings will need to be designed to survive that. “You’ve got to protect your assets to withstand small particles hitting you at order of magnitude a kilometer per second,” Robinson said. Questions or comments on this article? E-mail us at feedback@sciencenews.org | Reprints FAQ Citations M.S. Robinson et al. A new 225-m diameter crater on the moon. Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, The Woodlands, Texas, March 17, 2026. About Lisa Grossman E-mail X Lisa Grossman is the astronomy writer. She has a degree in astronomy from Cornell University and a graduate certificate in science writing from University of California, Santa Cruz. She lives in Minneapolis. We are at a critical time and supporting science journalism is more important than ever. Science News and our parent organization, the Society for Science, need your help to strengthen scientific literacy and ensure that important societal decisions are made with science in mind. Please subscribe to Science News and add $16 to expand science literacy and understanding. Popular Stories Health & Medicine GLP-1 microdosers are chasing longevity By Jamie DucharmeMarch 20, 2026 Neuroscience Why is math harder for some kids? Brain scans offer clues By Lily BurtonFebruary 27, 2026 Animals Wild monkeys invaded Florida. Should people protect them? By Freda KreierMarch 16, 2026 More Stories from Science News on Space Space How realistic is Project Hail Mary? 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In a rare event, the moon got a massive new crater
