The perception of Mercury changed drastically recently and it’s more like looking to through a kaleidoscope. Recent images taken from NASA’s Messenger spacecraft show that Mercury as a rainbow-like planet, cnet.com reported.

The spacecraft’s Mercury Atmosphere and Surface Composition Spectrometer instruments don’t show Mercury in the visible light spectrum but rather in composites over years.

“For the first time in history we now have real knowledge about the planet of Mercury that shows it to be a fascinating world,” NASA associate administrator John Grunsfeld told cnet.com.

NASA’s Messenger spacecraft entered Mercury’s orbit in 2011 and has been collecting data of the planet’s surface.

According to cnet.com, the data is collected in hundreds of different wavelengths of light — ranging from ultraviolet to infrared. Then the wavelengths are converted into a red, green and blue colors. Essentially, the wavelengths show mineral composition of the surfaces like craters or volcanic vents.

A study from 2012 proved that the planet was primarily made of ice. And researchers have found from the recent images that the ice came from outside the planet.

“The water now stored in ice deposits in the permanently shadowed floors of impact craters at Mercury’s poles most likely was delivered…by the impacts of comets and volatile-rich asteroids,” Messenger principal investigator Sean Solomon told cnet.com.

“Those same impacts also likely delivered the dark organic material,” Solomon said of the images to cnet.com.

Messenger will be retired Thursday as it will crash into Mercury at a speed of more than 8,750 miles per hour. The crash will occur on the side closest to Earth so researchers could see the impact at real time and study the data.

“While the spacecraft operations will end, we are celebrating Messenger as more than a successful mission,” Grunsfeld told cnet.com. “It’s the beginning of a longer journey to analyze the data that reveals all the scientific mysteries Mercury.”