Editing Mariner 4 (section)

===Micrometeoroid hits and end of communications===
[[Data acquisition]] resumed in late 1967. The [[cosmic dust]] detector registered 17 hits in a 15-minute span on September 15, part of an apparent [[micrometeoroid]] shower that temporarily changed the spacecraft attitude and probably slightly damaged its thermal shield. Later it was speculated that Mariner 4 passed through debris of [[D/1895 Q1]] (D/Swift) comet, and even made a flyby of that comet's possibly shattered nucleus at {{convert|20|e6km|e6mi|abbr=off}}.{{r|Phillips1|Phillips2}}

On December 7 the gas supply in the attitude control system was exhausted, and between December 10 and 11, a total of 83 micrometeoroid hits were recorded which caused perturbation of the spacecraft's attitude and degradation of the signal strength. On December 21, 1967, communications with Mariner 4 were terminated. The spacecraft is now derelict in an exterior [[heliocentric orbit]].{{r|Filmer|Pyle2012}}