Scientists Found a Crater Hidden Under Australia's Goldfields

In October 2026, NASA's Image of the Day was a giant "spider" in the Australian outback. It's not a spider. It's what's left of an asteroid impact, and it's not the only one. Earth's oldest known crater was found in Australia, a new one was confirmed this June, hidden under the Goldfields, and one crater is still missing. This map-led explainer puts Australia's biggest impact finds on one map: NASA's Spider Crater in the Kimberley; how scientists prove a hole came from space (shatter cones, shocked quartz, meteorite traces); the Pilbara crater two research teams disagree about; Yarrabubba, the previous record holder; Acraman, whose debris landed in the Flinders Ranges about 300 km away; Tnorala (Gosse Bluff) and Wolfe Creek Crater (Kandimalal), places with far older names; the crater confirmed in June 2026 near Ora Banda, north of Kalgoorlie; and ananguites, glass from an 11-million-year-old impact whose crater nobody has found. CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 0:49 The spider in the Kimberley 1:36 How to prove a crater 2:22 Earth's oldest crater? 3:24 The previous record 4:07 The giant you can't see 4:50 Old places, older names 6:00 Hidden under the Goldfields 6:50 The crater nobody has found 7:53 Your turn Which of these craters would you most like to see in person, or have you already stood on the rim of one? Tell us in the comments. SOURCES NASA Earth Observatory: An Impact Structure With Legs (13 Oct 2026); Spider Crater; Wolfe Creek Crater; Gosses Bluff Impact Crater; Acraman Impact Structure (science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory) Curtin University media releases (Jan 2020; Mar 2025; Jun 2026) Kirkland et al., Nature Communications (2025); Brenner et al., Science Advances (2025); Kirkland et al., Geology (2026) Quintero et al., Meteoritics & Planetary Science (2026) Musolino et al., Earth and Planetary Science Letters 670 (2025) Webb, Journal of the Virtual Explorer 20 (2005); Lunar and Planetary Institute abstracts via NASA NTRS (Acraman ejecta) University of Wollongong (2019, Wolfe Creek age) NT Parks, Tnorala (Gosse Bluff) Conservation Reserve; Parks and Wildlife Service WA, Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater National Park UNSW Newsroom (2023, Deniliquin structure); The Conversation (2025, 2026) CREDITS Music: "Ossuary 5 - Rest" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... "Vanishing" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... "Floating Cities" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Satellite and astronaut images: NASA Earth Observatory (Michala Garrison, Jesse Allen); Landsat data courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey; ISS astronaut photograph ISS007-E-05697, NASA Johnson Space Center; tektite photograph, NASA Ames Research Center (1967). Landsat 9 scenes of the Pilbara, Yarrabubba and Ora Banda areas: imagery courtesy of NASA/USGS. NASA does not endorse this video. Photos by Ben Carless, Eddie Mark Blair, Fiona Smallwood, Iain, Michael SKOPAL, Trevor McKinnon, Wietse Jongsma on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=au_d...) Stock photos and clips: Pixabay contributors RossTinney, RuRu_SG (Pixabay Content License) Map data: Natural Earth (public domain). Maps, rings, arcs and diagrams are drawn by us from the sources above; crater positions and shaded areas are approximate, and diagrams are illustrations. Narrated with a synthetic voice. Stock footage shows the real regions named and is not the craters themselves unless captioned. #Australia #ImpactCrater #Geology