A routine scan of the Moon has revealed a fresh scar around the length of two football pitches laid end to end – as NASA continues with its Artemis 2 mission to return humans there
The moon has been hit by a massive object(Image: Nasa)
A massive new impact crater has been discovered on the Moon and scientists say it’s the kind of event only seen once in a century.
The finding comes after a routine scan of images captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, which revealed a fresh scar stretching roughly 225 metres – about the length of two football pitches laid end to end.
While the Moon has been collecting impact craters for billions of years, the latest one stands out for its size.
Based on comparisons with surrounding lunar features, researchers estimate a crater of this size should only form once every 139 years, making the discovery exceptionally rare. It comes as NASA pushes ahead with plans to return humans to the Moon.
This includes the Artemis 2 mission, which plans to launch no sooner than April 1, 2026, and is set to carry four astronauts on a loop around the Moon. But the range and spread around the new crater has generated concern amongst scientists.
Since the Moon has no atmosphere to burn up objects, impacts like this eject vast amounts of rock and dust at high speeds, which is capable of creating hazardous conditions across a wide area.
Scientists have warned that any structures built on the Moon will need to be designed to withstand high-velocity debris, including particles travelling at roughly one kilometre per second.
The new crater appears to have formed on a boundary between the cratered lunar highlands and a wide, flat mare, which developed from liquid magma pooling on the moon’s surface, planetary scientist Mark Robinson said at the Lunar and Planetary Sciences Meeting in The Woodlands, Texas, last week.
It is also surrounded by a blanket of rock and dust that splashed out in all directions – as far as hundreds of metres – when the impact occurred.
NASA previously delayed its Artemis 2 crewed moon mission – initially set to launch for 2024 – due to technical issues with the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule, including a faulty helium system, hydrogen leaks, and safety concerns regarding the heat shield.
The mission will send four astronauts on a 10-day flight around the moon and back to Earth as soon as April 1.
