NASA affirmed that the Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging mission was a hit for them. On April 30, the spacecraft completed the historic voyage.

When fuel of the spacecraft finished, Messenger crashed into the planet’s surface. The probe could not continue its orbit around Mercury owing to lack of fuel hence, bringing an end to the four-year mission.

As per NASA, the mission was a significant one. During its mission period, the probe has sent back great photos of the Mercury’s surface using the Narrow Angle Camera in tandem with the Mercury Dual Imaging System. The photo reveals a sight of the planet.

NASA said the probe provided a photo of NASA’s Deep Space Network and soon after that it lost the signal, which as per scientists was the craft’s final contact with Mercury. Scientists affirmed the main challenge being faced by the probe was to make an entry into orbit around earth.

Flight engineers were facing problem as they were not able to avoid gravitational pull owing to the planet’s closeness to the sun. Not only weak gravitational force was an issue, but high temperature also made task tricky.

The probe was designed to protect the spaceship. In fact, scientists also planned a long, elliptical orbit around Mercury, so that Messenger could get time to cool down. From 2011 to 2015, the probe made more than 4,000 orbits around Mercury, which are more than being initially thought.

The researchers were able to have signals of magnetic activity in Mercury’s crust. After studying the data, the researchers said that Mercury’s magnetized regions could be as old as 3.7 billion years.