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Today in History: MESSENGER finds Mercury's second-largest crater Rembrandt

By Drooid · Oct 6, 2026, 10:33 AM UTC · How we work

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On 6 October 2008, NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft, during its second Mercury flyby, identified the Rembrandt basin—a 716-km-wide impact crater, the planet’s second-largest. At 3.9 billion years old, it formed during the Late Heavy Bombardment and, despite its size, shows rim-crater patterns indicating it is among Mercury’s youngest basins.

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Story summary

On 6 October 2008, NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft, during its second Mercury flyby, identified the Rembrandt basin—a 716-km-wide impact crater, the planet’s second-largest. At 3.9 billion years old, it formed during the Late Heavy Bombardment and, despite its size, shows rim-crater patterns indicating it is among Mercury’s youngest basins.