NASA scientist's routine check uncovers rare lunar crater formed by once-in-century impact

In the quiet discipline of routine data review, a NASA scientist encountered something the Moon had not shown before — a fresh wound on an ancient face. Between April and May of 2024, a space rock several stories tall struck the lunar surface, carving a crater nearly 728 feet wide in an event scientists estimate occurs only once a century. Named McGetchin in honor of a pioneering lunar researcher, the crater is more than a geological curiosity; it is a reminder that the Moon, long imagined as frozen in time, is still being written upon by the cosmos.