We may think we know the face of the moon, but its mottled complexion still holds a few surprises.

Recently, a team of scientists found a new, 200-kilometer wide crater on the lunar nearside – a large pockmark that remained anonymous for billions of years.

To be fair, it’s mostly buried beneath material kicked out by an even bigger impact, said Rohan Sood, a graduate student at Purdue University who presented the observations March 16 at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

“You’re probably the first person to discover a new, nearside crater in the last century or two,” Purdue’s Jay Melosh told Sood afterward.

twin GRAIL spacecraft

“Gravity is just more truthful, in