Astronomy Picture of the Day

   [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                 2025 May 1
    [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest
                        resolution version available.

                       MESSENGER's Last Day on Mercury
   Image Credit: [3]NASA, [4]Johns Hopkins Univ. APL, Arizona State Univ.,
                                     CIW

   Explanation: [5]The first to orbit inner planet Mercury, the
   [6]MESSENGER spacecraft [7]came to rest on this region of Mercury's
   surface on April 30, 2015. Constructed from MESSENGER image and laser
   altimeter data, the projected scene looks north over the northeastern
   rim of the broad, lava filled [8]Shakespeare basin. The large, 48
   kilometer (30 mile) wide crater Janacek is near the upper left edge.
   Terrain height is color coded with red regions about 3 kilometers above
   blue ones. [9]MESSENGER'S final orbit was predicted to end near the
   center, with the spacecraft impacting the surface at nearly 4
   kilometers per second (over 8,700 miles per hour) and creating a new
   crater about 16 meters (52 feet) in diameter. The impact on the far
   side of Mercury was not observed by telescopes, but confirmed when no
   signal was detected from the spacecraft given time to emerge from
   behind the planet. Launched in 2004, the MErcury Surface, Space
   ENvironment, GEochemisty and Ranging spacecraft completed over 4,000
   orbits after reaching the [10]Solar System's innermost planet in 2011.

                    Tomorrow's picture: burning hydrogen
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    Authors & editors: [22]Robert Nemiroff ([23]MTU) & [24]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([25]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Amber Straughn [26]Specific rights apply.
              [27]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                A service of: [28]ASD at [29]NASA / [30]GSFC,
                         [31]NASA Science Activation
                           & [32]Michigan Tech. U.

References

   1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
   2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2505/messengerImpactSite_black.jpg
   3. https://www.nasa.gov/
   4. https://www.jhuapl.edu/
   5. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111008.html
   6. https://messenger.jhuapl.edu/index.html
   7. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19444
   8. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA15388
   9. https://messenger.jhuapl.edu/About/Mission-Timeline.html
  10. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Mercury
  11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250430.html
  12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
  13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html
  14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html
  15. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
  17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss
  18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  20. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=250501
  21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250502.html
  22. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  23. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  24. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  25. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  27. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  28. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  29. https://www.nasa.gov/
  30. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  31. https://science.nasa.gov/learners
  32. http://www.mtu.edu/