Scientists discover incredibly old moon crater, name it after Amelia Earhart

(Image credit: NASA/Getty Images)

After studying the moon's gravity field, scientists from Purdue University made a surprising and rare discovery in the form of a huge crater, the likes of which haven't been detected in more than a century. Scientists estimate that the crater is at least 3.9 billion years old.

Scientists named the crater after Purdue faculty member Amelia Earhart, who gained fame as the first woman to fly across the Atlantic alone.

"When she was lost, she was actually flying a Purdue plane, so we wanted to recognise her in some form," one of the Purdue scientists told BBC News.