Publications
Partners
Miami - An unmanned Nasa spacecraft has crashed on the surface of the planet Mercury, after it ran out of fuel following a successful 11-year mission, the US space agency said on Thursday.
The MESSENGER probe - short for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging - was the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury, and issued a final farewell on Twitter shortly before its demise at 15:26.
"Well, I guess it's time to say goodbye to all my friends, family, support team. I will be making my final impact very soon."
Shortly after, the official @MESSENGER2011 Twitter account posted another image of Mercury's surface, with the caption: "MESSENGER's LAST ACT? THAT'S SMASHING!"
The image was not of Mercury's fall. Nasa has said previously that there could be no real-time pictures of the impact, which would take place on the side of the planet facing away from the Earth.
'Dramatic end'
But the US space agency confirmed that the probe had indeed crash-landed.
"A Nasa planetary exploration mission came to a planned, but nonetheless dramatic, end on Thursday when it slammed into Mercury's surface at about 8 750 miles per hour and created a new crater on the planet's surface," the agency said in a statement.
The spacecraft itself was just about three metres long.
The crater it would cause was expected to be 16 metres in diameter, Nasa said.
The mission, which launched in 2004, had achieved "unprecedented success," with its top discovery being that Mercury had lots of frozen water and other volatile materials in its permanently shadowed polar craters on the planet closest to the Sun, the US space agency said.
"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."
Some users, including fellow Nasa mission accounts, took to Twitter to send out their final messages to the spacecraft:
.@MESSENGER2011 You've done humanity - not just the scientists - a great service. Thank you!
— Tom Kerss (@tomkerss) April 30, 2015
@MESSENGER2011 Farewell brave spacecraft, you had an incredible mission!
— ESA Rosetta Mission (@ESA_Rosetta) April 30, 2015@MESSENGER2011 You've contributed to our exploration & understanding of our solar system! Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
— David A. Gaspar (@DavidAGaspar) April 30, 2015@MESSENGER2011 Rest well little robot. Welcome home. And dream of future explorers. #messenger, #messenger2011
— awessen (@awessen) April 30, 2015.@MESSENGER2011 Thank you for your service to science, brave one!
— NASA Kepler (@NASAKepler) April 30, 2015Well 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#thatsmessenger pic.twitter.com/NPK4zqtNPM
— MESSENGER (@MESSENGER2011) April 30, 2015MESSENGER by the numbers. pic.twitter.com/7BsMMs0z6v
— MESSENGER (@MESSENGER2011) April 30, 2015
