I have to confess, despite spending years gazing at the night sky, telescope at the ready, tracking planets and hunting for deep sky objects, I only actually saw the Man in the Moon about five years ago. There I was, exploring lunar maria and highland regions, and I'd somehow never noticed what humans have been seeing for millennia.

The moon has been bombarded throughout its 4.5 billion year history. The massive basins we see as the dark "seas" of the Man in the Moon formed during an era of catastrophic collisions that ended roughly 3.8 billion years ago. But while those days of dramatic, basin-forming impacts are largely over, the moon is still struck by asteroids and comets that create smaller, fresh craters.

The challenge is catching these impacts in the act, or at least shortly afterward. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera team identified one such particular crater by systematically comparing images of the same lunar regions taken at different times. By detecting changes between photographs captured before December 2009 and after December 2012, they could constrain when this impact occurred, even though nobody witnessed the collision itself.

The crater measures 22 meters in diameter, comparable to a large house. What makes it particularly striking is not its size but its brightness. The collision ejected material tens of meters from the crater rim, creating distinctive rays that spread outward in a sunburst pattern. This bright, fresh material contrasts sharply with the surrounding darker regolith, making the crater stand out like a new freckle on familiar skin.

These rays won't stay bright forever. Space weathering, the cumulative effect of solar wind particles, micrometeorite bombardment, and cosmic radiation, gradually darkens exposed lunar material. Over thousands to millions of years, this fresh crater will fade until it becomes indistinguishable from the countless ancient craters surrounding it. This darkening process is why older craters lack prominent rays, while relatively recent impacts like Tycho, formed perhaps 108 million years ago, still sport brilliant ray systems visible from Earth.

The discovery of new craters serves several scientific purposes. First, it helps astronomers refine estimates of current impact rates, which is essential for understanding the hazards facing both robotic missions and future human explorers. Second, by observing how quickly rays darken and crater features degrade, scientists can calibrate their models for dating other lunar surfaces based on crater density and appearance.

For those who appreciate the moon's geography, there's something rather wonderful about knowing that this ancient, unchanging face we've gazed at throughout human history continues to acquire new features. The moon isn't frozen in time. It's still being sculpted, still collecting new scars from its journey through space. Even if we're unlikely to actually witness an impact, these fresh craters remind us that the solar system remains a dynamic, occasionally violent place.