Medicine & TechnologyNASA's Messenger spacecraft orbited Mercury for four years, and in that time it collected a wealth of data and images as it mapped the planet's gravitational field. Now scientists have announced that Mercury's magnetic field is four million years old.
While NASA's Messenger Probe may be gone, having crashed into the surface of Mercury, the data it collected is still providing scientists with a wealth of knowledge on the planet that is closest to our Sun. According to data sent back from Messenger, the magnetic field of the little planet is almost four billion years old.
More than 10 years ago NASA launched it’s MESSENGER spacecraft with a one-year long orbit mission in mind. But over the course of its 4.9 billion-mile-journey NASA came to find that the decade-long mission would exceed expectations far past their mark.
Before its crash-landing into the surface of its long-studied host planet, NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft sent back its final view of the surface of Mercury. And now NASA is sharing it with you. Exceeding all expectations and lasting more than 4 times its original mission timeline, the spacecraft has been instrumental to NASA’s vast studies of the other planets within our solar system, so with this image and a fiery display to end its mission with flair, the space agency is paying homage to MESSENGER and its long life in orbit.
The only spacecraft ever to have orbited Mercury has ended its mission by crashing into the surface, leaving behind a new crater as a monument of its landmark achievement.
NASA's Mercury orbiter, Messenger, is going out with a bang as it prepares to dive bomb the planet in glorious fashion, leaving behind a new crater on the planet closest to the sun that will measure approximately 16 meters wide once the dust has settled.
The first spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury will crash into the surface of the small planet located closest to the sun in just two short weeks from now.
The Mercury probe sent by NASA to study the planet closest to the sun isn't ready to finish its groundbreaking work just yet so NASA is taking steps to extend it's mission for at least another month.
The planet closest to the sun has continued to be shrouded in mystery for many years. Now, NASA has unveiled never before seen formations on the surface with two maps created from data from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft that has been orbiting the planet since 2004.