Science & Tech · Space · 12 hrs ago
A 2024 lunar impact left a cold patch four miles wide
A space impact formed a 728-foot crater on the Moon in 2024.
The crater, later named McGetchin, was spotted in images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in October 2025.
Measurements found a cold patch about four miles across around it, where nighttime temperatures were 14 to 16°F lower than nearby ground.
The crater is the largest newly formed one found since the orbiter began operating in 2009.
The colder ground indicates the impact loosened the Moon’s dusty, rocky surface, which holds less heat overnight when it is less packed down.
Researchers say similar cold areas may form around new craters wider than 100 feet, extending the effects of impacts well beyond the visible holes.
A lunar impact in spring 2024 created a crater 728 feet (222 meters) wide and loosened soil across a roughly 4-mile (7-kilometer) area.
At night, the affected ground is 14 to 16°F (8 to 9 K) colder than nearby terrain.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter measured the cold patch with its Diviner heat-sensing instrument.
The crater was identified in images on October 24, 2025, and later named McGetchin.
Researchers estimate an impact large enough to make a crater of this size occurs on the Moon about once every 132 years on average.
- Who
- A research team led by Tyler Powell of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory measured the cold patch.
- What
- A lunar impact created a 728-foot-wide crater and loosened soil across a roughly 4-mile area, which is colder at night.
- When
- The impact happened in spring 2024. The crater was identified on October 24, 2025.
- Where
- On the Moon, at the boundary between a dark lava plain and brighter highland ground.
- Why
- The impact loosened the soil, which holds less heat through the night than more tightly packed ground.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
An impact created a 728-foot-wide crater on the Moon.
Robert Wagner identified the crater while comparing newer and older lunar images.
Diviner took its first readings of the crater.
Diviner had measured the site on 20 nighttime passes.
- Crater width
- 728 feet (222 meters)
- Cold patch width
- About 4 miles (7 kilometers)
- Nighttime temperature difference
- 14 to 16°F (8 to 9 K) colder than nearby ground
- Crater name
- McGetchin
- Instrument
- Diviner on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
What people are saying
I just stopped, dropped everything, and started looking into what that spot was