Mercury's Rembrandt crater from the Messenger spacecraft on August 7, 2011. Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

Yes, in case you were wondering and even if you weren’t the Messenger spacecraft orbiting around Mercury is alive and well and still returning very nice images.

The ESA is planning their own mission to Mercury with their Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) which is going through a bit of testing at the moment.  I’ll tell you more about the ESA mission in a day or two.

Here’s the Messenger informational caption for the image:

This limb image shows Rembrandt, the second largest impact basin on Mercury after Caloris. Discovered during the second MESSENGER flyby, Rembrandt is one of the youngest impact basins on Mercury, as indicated by the relatively low density of impact craters on its rim. A large lobate scarp trending from the southwest to the north crosscuts Rembrandt and several of the smaller craters that have impacted the smooth interior plains.