Orbital images revealed the largest contemporary impact crater yet found in the Solar System.
A routine comparison of monthly lunar images in fall 2025 revealed a new crater that had formed between earlier observations. The crater is 222 meters in diameter and was created by an impact in spring 2024.
Higher-resolution images later showed the crater’s detailed shape and terrain, including complex geology exposed by the impact. They also documented changes spread more than 1,000 crater radii from the new crater.
Researchers used monthly images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to detect a new 222-meter-diameter crater on the Moon. The crater formed in spring 2024, and the study identifies it as the largest contemporary impact crater found in the Solar System. According to current models, an event of this size occurs about once every 132 years. Later, higher-resolution images provided meter-scale information about the crater’s surface and shape, showing exposed complex geology and widespread surface changes extending more than 1,000 crater radii.
Recent lunar impacts provide direct evidence for testing estimates of how often impacts occur, how quickly the Moon’s surface changes and how craters form. Because the crater was observed after its formation, its shape, exposed geology and distant surface effects can be compared with models of impact processes.
The findings come from before-and-after comparisons of monthly wide-angle orbital images, followed by higher-resolution images that supplied detailed surface and topographic information. The abstract does not give a direct ground measurement or describe a full uncertainty range for the crater’s size, formation timing or the estimated 132-year frequency. The frequency statement is based on current models, while the observed crater and surface changes are supported by the orbital imagery.
Science Advances · 2026 · DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aeh7812
Authors: M. S. Robinson, A. K. Boyd, P. Mahanti, M. R. Manheim, E. J. Speyerer, J. D. Stopar, R. V. Wagner
Institutions: Intuit (United States), Lunar and Planetary Institute, Universities Space Research Association
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