Overview
- The impact that formed McGetchin was dated to between April 11 and May 22, 2024, and produced a crater about 222 meters across and up to 43 meters deep.
- Wide-angle images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in May 2024 were not flagged until August 2025, with higher-resolution LRO images and thermal data used in 2025–2026 to confirm and measure the feature.
- Thermal measurements from the Diviner instrument show a roughly 7-kilometer-wide cold anomaly caused by loosened, lower-density regolith and researchers mapped ejecta and surface changes out past 100 kilometers.
- Authors of two Science Advances papers published in September 2026 named the site McGetchin and say the results are already being used to model how future impact ejecta could reach and damage planned NASA lunar bases.
- Researchers call the event a rare observation at century-scale frequency that offers a detailed natural test of impact physics, regolith turnover, and how long surface marks like Apollo footprints can persist.