After ten years, spacecraft will end life as just another crater on Mercury's surface

Very soon, probably on 30 April, a half-tonne spacecraft will plough into the surface of Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, at about 4km/s or nearly 9,000mph. The spacecraft is NASA's MESSENGER ("MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging"), which became the first spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury in March 2011.

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