Giant Crater Found on Mercury

I haven't been successful in seeing Mercury the last couple of weeks. Either I haven't had the opportunity to look or the weather wasn't cooperating. Though I definitely wouldn't have seen this. Discover's Bad Astronomy blog writes Mercury hides a monster impact.

"This new MESSENGER image of Mercury was taken when the spacecraft swept past the tiny planet back in October 2008. The big circular feature is the Rembrandt impact basin, which is a ginormous 715 kilometers (440 miles) across. Incredibly, this feature has never been seen before on Mercury! That goes to show you how hard it’s been to study the planet in the past. From Earth, Mercury never gets very high above the horizon so it’s always a fuzzy blob, and previous spacecraft encounters only imaged parts of the planet."

The article says "Colorado would comfortably fit inside it." Colorado is 280 x 380 miles. But by area, the Rembrandt impact basin is just a little smaller than California. The NASA Messenger site has more info. Including a map showing it about 4 times the size of New England.