Overview
- The finding, which Mark Robinson unveiled March 17 at the Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference, came from before-and-after images taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter since 2009.
- The crater measures about 225 meters across and likely formed in April or May 2024 in an event researchers estimate occurs roughly once every 139 years.
- A bright blanket of rock and dust rings the site for hundreds of meters, with surface disturbances traced as far as 120 kilometers because the airless Moon lets ejecta travel vast distances.
- Scientists warn that even tiny fragments from such impacts can strike equipment at roughly one kilometer per second, so habitats, power units, and rovers will need tougher shielding.
- The pit sits on the boundary between rugged highlands and a flat lava plain, and its 43-meter depth, steep walls, and slight elongation point to strong but uneven subsurface rock.