A NASA space probe orbiting Mercury has captured dramatic final images of the world closest to our sun — just days away from a fiery end that will see it crash into the planet's surface.
The images were the last of more than 250,000 the Messenger spacecraft – an acronym for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging – has snapped of Mercury since going into orbit around the planet in March 2011.
The probe was launched in 2004 on its long journey to where the heavily cratered Mercury circles the sun every 116 Earth days.
The mission will come to a smashing end as the spacecraft, which is running out of fuel, is pulled down by Mercury's gravity to make impact with the planet's surface at around 8,750 mph. This will most likely occur on April 30.
Messenger is only the second space probe to visit Mercury, following the Mariner 10 spacecraft's fly-by in the 1970s.
The multicolored "psychedelic" appearance of the latest images is the result of spectral data from a spectrometer aboard the spacecraft – revealing the mineral makeup of Mercury's surface – being overlaid on black-and-white photos.
The Mercury Atmosphere and Surface Composition Spectrometer is one of seven instruments aboard the spacecraft gathering data on the planet.
NASA officials expressed pleasure at the significant amount of new information the Messenger has gathered about Mercury, the smallest planet in our solar system.
"For the first time in history, we now have real knowledge about the planet Mercury that shows it to be a fascinating world as part of our diverse solar system," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington.
"While spacecraft operations will end, we are celebrating Messenger as more than a successful mission," he said. "It's the beginning of a longer journey to analyze the data that reveals all the scientific mysteries of Mercury."
The Messenger mission may be ending, but Mercury will not remain unobserved at close quarters for long; the space agencies of Europe and Japan have both announced plans to put a probe in orbit around the distant world, with launch dates set for January 2017.
