article_snippet.sent: Engineers has spent four years orbiting the closest planet to our sun, but despite desperate attempts to extend the life of Messenger spacecraft, Engineers is slowly spiraling towards Mercury's scorched surface.
article_snippet.sent: Yet even as Engineers mission draws to an end, the final weeks of Nasa's Messenger spacecraft are revealing the closest planet in unrivaled detail.
article_snippet.sent: Messenger is currently 18 miles (29.1km) above Mercury after Nasa engineers used the last of Nasa fuel in a last ditch effort to push Spacecraft higher into orbit after Spacecraft dropped to within nine miles (15km) of the surface.
article_snippet.sent: But as Messenger drops ever closer to Mercury's surface, Spacecraft is sending back some of the most detailed images ever obtained of the smallest planet in our solar system.
article_snippet.sent: Andy Calloway, Messenger Mission operatoins manager at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, said: 'The MESSENGER spacecraft operates in one of the most challenging and demanding space environments in our Solar System, and our have met that challenge directly through innovation and hard work, as exemplified by the stunning discoveries and data return achievements. '
article_snippet.sent: Launched in August 2004, Messenger has traveled more than 4.9 billion miles (7.9 billion kilometers) during Messenger mission to Mercury.
article_snippet.sent: The above graphic was released by Nasa to mark ten years since the spacecraft was launched in 2004 .
article_snippet.sent: Messenger journey included 15 trips around the sun before Messenger entered orbit around Mercury in 2011 - the first spacecraft to ever do so.
article_snippet.sent: During its mission to Mercury has acquired more than 250,000 images and collected more than 10 terabytes of data with Messenger suite of seven instruments.
article_snippet.sent: Messenger has also revealed Mercury's complex internal structure and that the planet has an unusually large core that is still partially liquid.
article_snippet.sent: Karl Whittenburg, deputy mission operations manager at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, said: 'To Karl Whittenburg, deputy mission operations manager at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory knowledge, this is the first-ever use of a pressurant for a planned propulsion of a spacecraft, so Karl Whittenburg, deputy mission operations manager at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory could only theorize how the Messenger spacecraft's hydrazine fuel might perform. '
article_snippet.sent: Karl Whittenburg, deputy mission operations manager at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory are now fully confident that future use of gaseous helium will continue to provide Messenger with a unique vantage point for studying Mercury.'
article_snippet.sent: This image Mercury was one of the first sent back by Messenger as This image approached the planet in 2008 .
article_snippet.sent: The above artist's impression shows Messenger as Messenger orbits above the surface of Mercury.
article_snippet.sent: Messenger has also revealed the temperature of Mercury's surface.
highlights_snippet.sent: Messenger is expected to impact on the surface of Mercury around April 30 .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: Spacecraft has been orbiting Mercury since 2011, taking 250,000 pictures .
  