Bye, bye, Messenger. Thanks for the memories.
NASA’s Messenger spacecraft, which has orbited Mercury for about four years, crashed into the planet closest to the sun Thursday as expected, ending its long and successful mission.
It was a "planned, but nonetheless dramatic, end" for the mission, according to NASA. Messenger was traveling at nearly 9,000 mph when it crashed into Mercury's surface at 3:26 p.m. EDT, the space agency says. In total, the probe completed 4,105 orbits of Mercury, and scientists predict that Messenger left a 50-foot-wide crater on the planet's surface when it crashed.
“Going out with a bang as it impacts the surface of Mercury, we are celebrating Messenger as more than a successful mission,” John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement. “The MESSENGER mission will continue to provide scientists with a bonanza of new results as we begin the next phase of this mission -- analyzing the exciting data already in the archives, and unravelling the mysteries of Mercury.”
Messenger (short for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging) made its final plunge because it ran out of fuel needed to keep it in orbit. But this isn’t necessarily a sad moment for NASA; the $446 million Messenger mission has had a long and fruitful life orbiting the Mercury.
And it has beamed back the science to prove it.
Messenger became the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury when it arrived in orbit around the planet in 2011 after launching to space in 2004. Since then, the probe crafted the first complete map of the planet’s surface and found that the planet may play host to ice in shadowed craters at the planet’s north and south poles.
“The water now stored in ice deposits in the permanently shadowed floors of impact craters at Mercury’s poles most likely was delivered to the innermost planet by the impacts of comets and volatile-rich asteroids,” Sean Solomon, Messenger's principal investigator, said in a statement.
The Messenger social media team was tweeting up a storm from the spacecraft's account before the crash:
Well I guess it is time to say goodbye to all my friends, family, support team. I will be making my final impact very soon.— MESSENGER (@MESSENGER2011) April 30, 2015
Plenty of people (and even other spacecraft) celebrated Messenger's mission during the spacecraft's final hours.
The official* pinata is ready for MESSENGER's crash into Mercury. X marks the spot! *(totally not official) pic.twitter.com/KG26HKdGYM— cratergirl (@cratergirl) April 30, 2015
A BIG SALUTE to the NASA MESSENGER project team for a revolutionary science mission that out did every expectation! pic.twitter.com/kSOgaHVwde— NewHorizons2015 (@NewHorizons2015) April 30, 2015
It's possible I'm getting way to emotional about @MESSENGER2011 right now…— Summer (@Summer_Ash) April 30, 2015
Quite a few cosmic bodies in the solar system play host to impact craters where manmade probes have crashed.
The moon, for example, recently got a new pockmark thanks to NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer probe that crashed into the lunar surface after completing its mission last year.
The Slooh Community Observatory helped send Messenger off with a webcast featuring the mission at the probe’s expected time of impact Thursday. You can watch a replay of the webcast in the window below: