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NASA spacecraft says final farewell at 3:26 p.m. ET, plunging to planet’s surface

CBC News Posted: Apr 30, 2015 9:33 AM ET Last Updated: Apr 30, 2015 9:33 AM ET

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NASA’s Messenger spacecraft is making its final few orbits before saying goodbye and smashing into the surface of the planet Mercury.

The dramatic, deadly impact is scheduled for 3:26 p.m. ET today, when the spacecraft runs out propellant. At that point, the force of the Sun’s gravity will cause it to fall and crash into the surface of Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, NASA says.

Well my last orbit starts in about 4 hours. At that time I will have completed 4104 orbits.

— @MESSENGER2011

Messenger, which has been orbiting Mercury since March 2011, will dive bomb the planet at 3.91 kilometres per second (14,000 kilometres an hour). It’s expected to leave a crater 16 kilometres wide on the planet’s surface.

This will give you an idea of how big my crater will be. http://t.co/JeNn54c6RQ pic.twitter.com/7rFZHE5P6p

— @MESSENGER2011

The impact will take place on the side of Mercury facing away from Earth, giving the spacecraft some privacy during its last moments.

Messenger, launched in August 2014, is the first spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury. In the past four years, it has snapped more than 270,000 images of the planet and made measurements that have revealed many surprises including:

These are a few of the things Messenger has done over the course of its life, which ends tomorrow. (NASA)

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Source:: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/messenger-spacecraft-crashes-into-mercury-today-1.3055253?cmp=rss