Space Dossier: Life and Death of NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft [video]

Yet another very successful big project from the mighty NASA is about to come to an end, causing yet another American Space Agency apparatus to literally fall into the universe, this time on planet Mercury. This is the Mercury Surface Space Environment Geochemistry (MESSENGER) probe, launched in 2004.

With the initial purpose of “working” for just a year, it proved effective and quite durable in space on its first missions, causing scientists to extend their life as long as they could. It is noteworthy to you, reader, that MESSENGER's main focus has always been to focus its studies on the planet Mercury, but the equipment traveled for over six years before finally starting to orbit the planet closest to our sun on March 18, 2011 - where it never left.

Death of space

According to NASA, the spacecraft will definitely "die" on Thursday (30). As an idea, since April 24th, MESSENGER has started making its last six rotational motions, directing its entire structure to fall (for lack of fuel) and “die for good” on the smallest planet in our Solar System, reaching the planet at over 234.6 km / h - on the side that does not overlook the Blue Planet.

In its life history, the famous American spacecraft leaves some remarkable visits, such as a complete flyover around the Earth, two on Venus and finally three complete flyovers on Mercury, becoming the first spacecraft to accomplish this feat.

However, if you are hoping to get images about the fall, forget it: official impact images are not expected, unfortunately.

Discoveries

Various unusual information about Mercury (surface, exosphere, magnetic field, etc.), which is also known as “the star of the morning and night” by Greek astronomers, has been revealed in these four years of missions that MESSENGER undertook. Check out the most relevant:

Temperature

The planet's surface can reach torrid 450 degrees Celsius. However, since it does not have an atmosphere that can hold all its heat, night temperatures can plummet to as much as minus 170 degrees Celsius, the largest climatic variation found in our Solar System.

Craters

Similar to our moon, Mercury is about the same size as our natural satellite, as well as crater-rich, as it lacks a significant atmosphere to prevent meteor and asteroid impacts. Incidentally, MESSENGER found that the planet harbored a vast ocean of lava approximately 4.5 billion years ago.

Atmosphere

The smallest planet in the Solar System is only 38% of Earth's gravity, which is too little to keep its atmosphere intact and away from the dangerous solar winds.

Water

In 2012, the spacecraft revealed some very unusual information to the world, uncovering frozen water in the craters around Mercury's north pole. This is due to the simple fact that the inclination of the planet's axis of rotation has an angle of only 1 degree, making it easier to hide from the sun. It is believed that the south pole can also contain several water pockets.

Day by day

A day on Mercury is the equivalent of almost 59 earth days, which is totally strange and disconcerting to a simple earthling. Because the sun's gravity is so strong on the planet, it is practically tied to our star-king, traveling through space at about 180, 000 km / h - faster than any other planet.

Magnetism

Mercury has only 1% of the earth's magnetic field, but it is extremely active and resilient. Still, due to the solar winds, magnetic tornadoes are common on the planet - who risks a brief visit?

Awesome images

In addition to information and curiosities about “the star of the morning and the night”, MESSEGER has recorded several amazing images in its 11 years of life. Check out some photos:

For more information, you can visit the official MESSENGER website, or even a NASA special on the subject. Also, it is very worthwhile to check out the vast database of official images made by the spacecraft, called the “MESSENGER Gallery”.

Next stop

According to information published by NASA itself, the next probe for the guys in Mercury will be called BepiColumbo, scheduled to launch in January 2017. Meanwhile, we are left waiting for new information about the new project.

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And you, reader, like the subject? What did you think about the findings made by MESSENGER? Be sure to share your information with us in the comments below.