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LIVE VIDEO: NASA to crash twin probes into the moon at 5pm

Posted at 4:24 PM, Dec 17, 2012
and last updated 2012-12-17 16:24:31-05

(CNN) – A pair of robotic twins that have been diligently mapping the moon this year will be going out with a bang.

The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) probes, Ebb and Flow, will crash into a mountain on the moon Monday afternoon.

It will end a fruitful mission to study the surface and composition of the moon.

NASA is crashing the probes, about the size of an apartment washer and dryer, because they’re running out of fuel.

The twin spacecraft will crash intentionally near the moon’s north pole at 5:28 p.m. EST.

NASA says thanks to GRAIL, scientists now have the highest-resolution gravity field map of any celestial body and the probes have given scientists unprecedented insight into what’s below the surface and how the moon may have formed.