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                           Astronomy Picture of the Day   
      
       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   
      
                          MESSENGER's Last Day on Mercury   
       Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ. APL, Arizona State Univ., CIW   
      
      Explanation: The first to orbit inner planet Mercury, the MESSENGER   
      spacecraft 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 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. 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 Solar   
      System's innermost planet in 2011.   
      
                       Tomorrow's picture: burning hydrogen   
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          Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)   
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