For the past eight years NASA's MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) spacecraft has been sending back gigabytes of images and data from the Sun's closest companion, Mercury. Today this will come to a fiery end when the fuel-depleted spacecraft crashes into the surface of Mercury in a planned end to the highly-successful mission. Craters on Mercury colored by the type of material. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington The resulting crater, estimated to be about 50 feet wide, will join the countless other craters that MESSENGER has imaged in great detail. The data from MESSENGER has revealed many surprises over the years including ice in the shadowy craters at Mercury's south pole , a misaligned magnetic field compared to the spin axis of Mercury , an excess of volatile elements like potassium and sulfur that shed light on how Mercury may have formed , and unusual "h
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