Facts about NASA's MESSENGER's Mercury hit on April 30 revealed

There are six things that you probably didn't know about the MESSENGER's Mercury hit to occur on April 30.

Research scientist Jim Raines at the University of Michigan, who's also a MESSENGER team member, quantified the crash along with his teammates and revealed:

1. Meteors with the same mass as MESSENGER (513 kg) slam into Mercury about every month or two, and typically with 10 times the speed and 100 times the energy. The planet doesn't have a thick atmosphere that would slow down objects headed for the surface.

2. The 1,131-pound spacecraft will hit with the energy of about a ton of TNT, or the force of a car travelling at about 2,000 mph.

3. At almost 9,000 mph, the craft will be travelling three times faster than a speeding bullet and nearly twelve times the speed of sound.

4. On MESSENGER's last orbit, it will pass just 900 to 1,800 feet over the planet's surface. We have buildings that tall on Earth.

5. The crater the craft will leave near Mercury's north pole is predicted to be about 50 feet wide. That's the width of an NBA basketball court.

6. Nearly 55% of MESSENGER's weight at launch was fuel -- which is about to run out.

Tweets from MESSENGER:

I guess the end is coming: After ten years, spacecraft will end life as just another crater on Mercury's surface http://t.co/snQOH16lxh

— MESSENGER (@MESSENGER2011) April 27, 2015

Did you know when I make my final impact, I will be traveling 8,750 miles/hour (3.91 km/s), creating a crater ~52 feet (16 m) wide?

— MESSENGER (@MESSENGER2011) April 28, 2015

Thank you to all of my followers! You are great!

— MESSENGER (@MESSENGER2011) April 16, 2015