DON鈥橳 shoot the Messenger 鈥� it鈥檚 already on a collision course with Mercury. NASA鈥檚 Messenger space probe, which has been orbiting the planet for over four years, has run out of fuel and is expected to hit the surface on 30 April.
The spacecraft actually burned the last of its fuel in January, but in April, NASA engineers squeezed out a little extra thrust by venting on-board helium gas, which was used to pressurise the fuel. This gave the craft more time in orbit, with a final boost last Friday.
With nothing left to fight gravity, Messenger will crash into Mercury鈥檚 surface at over 14,000 kilometres an hour, creating a crater 16 metres across.
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聯With nothing left to fight gravity, Messenger will crash into Mercury at 14,000 kilometres an hour聰
Examining the fresh crater could provide data on how space weathering affects Mercury鈥檚 heavily pockmarked surface 鈥� but this crater will be too small to see from Earth, and the Hubble Space Telescope can鈥檛 look at Mercury because it would have to point at the sun. That means astronomers won鈥檛 get a good look at it until a joint European and Japanese mission, called BepiColombo, reaches it in 2024.
Clarification, 1 May, 2015: The size of the impact crater has been clarified since this article was first published.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淢ercury nosedive鈥�
