Examining a new lunar crater + searching for signs of alien technology

September 30, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

“Something of this size is expected to form once every maybe 130 years. So it's extremely rare. It's unlikely to be exceeded, maybe in our lifetimes.” That is planetary scientist Tyler Powell describing a brand-new lunar crater—220 meters across, over 140 feet deep, created by a rock no bigger than 10 to 20 meters slamming into the Moon at roughly 20 kilometers per second sometime between April and May 2024. The crater is the largest fresh impact feature ever observed forming in real time, and it offers scientists a pristine, time-zero look at how impacts reshape planetary surfaces. In the second half of the episode, technosignature researcher Sophia Sheikh explains a complementary lunar idea: that Moon dust might preserve microscopic traces of alien technology, if any exists, for millions of years. The two segments share a throughline—the Moon as a stable, readable archive of events, both natural and potentially artificial—but they approach it from opposite directions: one studying a violent natural process, the other speculating about faint artificial leftovers.

A Rare, Fresh Crater and What It Reveals

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What you'll learn

1 (01:06) **New Lunar Crater Discovery** - A fresh impact crater the size of two football fields appeared on the Moon between April and May 2024.
2 (03:21) **What a Pristine Crater Reveals** - Scientists use thermal data to study how the impact altered the lunar surface at vast distances.
3 (05:45) **Real-World Relevance of Crater Effects** - The fluffed-up regolith has measurable consequences for human exploration.
4 (07:36) **Hunting for Alien Technology in Moon Dust** - A new proposal suggests searching lunar regolith for microscopic traces of extraterrestrial technology.
5 (10:43) **The Scale of the Search** - Finding techno-dust on the Moon requires imagining a galaxy-spanning civilization.
6 (12:18) **Radio Signals: The Classic Technosignature** - Dr. Sheikh explains why radio waves are the traditional and most efficient method for interstellar communication.
7 (14:20) **The Evolving Hunt** - Technological advances are dramatically accelerating the search for technosignatures.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

In 2024, scientists using instruments on board the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft spotted a new large impact crater on the surface of the moon. Tyler Powell joins host Flora Lichtman to describe what they found, and what scientists are learning about the lunar surface from studying it.

After, Sofia Sheikh describes different approaches to hunting for intelligent alien life through ‘technosignatures’. These are technological traces that could only be produced by intelligent life, like radio transmissions, industrial pollution, or city lights at night. Researchers from the SETI Institute have proposed sifting through lunar dust to look for tiny traces of a long-gone super advanced galactic civilization.

Guests:

Dr Tyler Powell is a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

Dr. Sofia Sheikh is a Technosignature Research Scientist at the SETI Institute.

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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