Rembrandt's Rim

The Rembrandt basin, first discovered during MESSENGER's second flyby of Mercury, is the youngest of the large impact basins that formed on Mercury. Here you can see a portion of the rim. The rim scarp runs north-south along the scene, casting a meandering shadow that separates the basin exterior on the left from the interior on the right. The two sides don't look hugely different, likely because during and after the basin-forming event molten rock coated much of this area, later solidifying to form the surface we see today.

This image was acquired as a targeted set of stereo images. Targeted stereo observations are acquired at resolutions much higher than that of the 200-meter/pixel stereo base map. These targets acquired with the NAC enable the detailed topography of Mercury's surface to be determined for a local area of interest.

Date acquired: August 14, 2013
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 18791579
Image ID: 4630071
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: -33.54°
Center Longitude: 77.82° E
Resolution: 104 meters/pixel
Scale: This scene is approximately 106 km (66 mi.) across
Incidence Angle: 79.3°
Emission Angle: 2.8°
Phase Angle: 76.7°

Photo credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington