NEW YORK: Mercury probe Messenger’s mission has finally come to a close, with the spacecraft hurtling into the planet’s surface at a speed of 8,750 mph (14,082 kph).
As it plummeted, having used the last of its fuel to position itself into the gravitational pull of Mercury, the probe still continued to take photographs of the planet’s surface. The final image transmitted back to Earth is of the floor of the 58-mile-wide (93 km) Jokai crater.
Messenger’s impact would have created a small crater of its own, estimated to be about 50 feet in diameter.
The probe, which was originally planned for a one-year mission, was launched on August 3, 2004, reaching Mercury orbit in March 2011. It then went on to spend the next four years studying the Swift Planet in an unprecedented level of detail, quadrupling its expected mission length.
“Going out with a bang as it impacts the surface of Mercury, we are celebrating Messenger as more than a successful mission,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
“The Messenger mission will continue to provide scientists with a bonanza of new results as we begin the next phase of this mission — analysing the exciting data already in the archives, and unravelling the mysteries of Mercury.”
The impact occurred on the far side of Mercury, so NASA scientists were unable to observe it directly. Instead, the impact was confirmed at 3:40 p.m. EDT, at the time the probe was due to reappear from behind the planet. In addition, the NASA Deep Space Network Radio Science team independently confirmed the loss of a signal from Messenger.
