The Russian spacecraft Progress begin to fall to Earth on May 8 – Polish Radio

Graphic simulation: a probe orbiting the planet Mercury Messenger Photo: NASA / Johns Hopkins University

                             American Messenger probe, which was the first object sent from Earth, circled by four years in orbit around the planet Mercury, ended on Thursday his mission. Under the plan was to crash into the surface of this planet.
                         

The probe completely exhausted reserves of fuel and under the influence of gravitational forces of the planets and the sun gradually slid out of orbit to eventually fall on Mercury’s surface at a speed of 14.081 km / h. As reported by agency NASA, the probe struck the crater on the surface of approx. 16 meters.

The Messenger circled the Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun, 4.105 times and made over 277 thousand. images.

– Today we said goodbye to one of our most reliable and effective spacecraft ever explored the neighboring planet – said Sean Solomon of Columbia University, who led the team of scientists supervising the research probe.

To reach the Mercury probe defeated complicated trajectory crossing near the Earth once, Venus twice and circle around Mercury three times before finally entered the permanent orbit around the planet. Solomon pointed out that the way the probe had to survive both “extremely high temperatures and extreme doses of radiation.”

Messenger had to crash into the far side of the planet

controllers on Earth were able to extend the life of the probe by an additional couple of weeks using the provided helium on board as a fuel, although originally the gas was not intended for this role. But in the end, and the store has run out

The probe crashed into the invisible hemisphere of the Earth, Mercury, and only some time NASA scientists have confirmed the crash, because Messenger silent.

Messenger detected Water ice

Messenger, which launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida in 2004., detected m. al., that in areas poles of Mercury is water ice and its magnetic field shows irregularities. In addition, the probe detected traces of the old intense volcanic activity on Mercury and the evidence shrinking its shell. The data provided by the probe are enough scientists to study the next year.

Before MESSENGER Mercury visited the American Mariner 10 only in the 70s last year. Century. But he only flew near the planet.

The successors Messenger to be two BepiColombo satellites developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan. Their start is scheduled for 2017 and the achievement of Mercury for the year 2024.

PAP / IAR / agkm