After orbiting Mercury for more than three years collecting data and photos to send back to Earth, NASA's Messenger spacecraft ran out of fuel Thursday and smashed into Mercury in a fiery — yet planned — crash.
Though Messenger was always set to meet its end in this way, it existed much longer than expected — scientists had only planned for the craft to last for a year in orbit. In recent weeks, the spacecraft found that Mercury has patches of ice in some of its craters, and its gradual drift towards Mercury's surface meant that scientists could actually get better photos of the planet.
"It's mind-boggling how much we have accomplished," Messenger scientist Deborah Domingue said in a statement. "There is such a feeling of satisfaction."
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