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News tagged with messenger

Model suggests how life's code emerged from primordial soup

(PhysOrg.com) -- In 1953, Stanley Miller filled two flasks with chemicals assumed to be present on the primitive Earth, connected the flasks with rubber tubes and introduced some electrical sparks as a stand-in for lightning. ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Aug 07, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (20) | comments 15

New method for generating human stem cells is remarkably efficient

The ability to efficiently generate patient-specific stem cells from differentiated cells and then reliably direct them to form specialized cells (like neurons or muscle) has tremendous therapeutic potential for replacing ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Sep 30, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (16) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

Messenger orbital data confirm theories, reveal surprises

On March 18, 2011, the MESSENGER spacecraft entered orbit around Mercury to become that planet's first orbiter. The spacecraft's instruments are making a complete reconnaissance of the planet's geochemistry, ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jun 16, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (16) | comments 24 | with audio podcast

NASA spacecraft now circling Mercury -- a first

For the first time, Earth has a regular orbiting eye-in-the-sky spying on the solar system's smallest and strangest planet, Mercury.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 18, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (16) | comments 5

April fool? No foolin’...

If you fell victim to an April Fool’s prank, then consider that life can play some of the most ironic jokes of all. On April 1, 2011 the Mercury MESSENGER was taking some of its first images from Mercury’s ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Apr 04, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (15) | comments 8

Strange hollows discovered on Mercury

NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft has discovered strange hollows on the surface of Mercury. Images taken from orbit reveal thousands of peculiar depressions at a variety of longitudes and latitudes, ranging in size ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Oct 25, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (15) | comments 12 | with audio podcast

NASA releases picture of Mercury's surface (Update)

NASA on Tuesday released the first picture taken of Mercury's surface by the US space agency's orbiting Messenger craft.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 30, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (14) | comments 12

A new lead for autoimmune disease

A drug derived from the hydrangea root, used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine, shows promise in treating autoimmune disorders, report researchers from the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine and the Immune ...

Medicine & Health / Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

created Jun 04, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (13) | comments 5

New revelations about Mercury's volcanism, magnetic substorms, exosphere from MESSENGER (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Analysis of data from MESSENGER's third and final flyby of Mercury in September 2009 has revealed evidence of younger volcanism on the innermost planet than previously recognized, new information ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jul 15, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (12) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Mercury's surprising core and landscape curiosities

(PhysOrg.com) -- On March 17, the tiny MESSENGER spacecraft completed its primary mission to orbit and observe the planet Mercury for one Earth-year. The bounty of surprises from the mission has completely ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 21, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (12) | comments 13 | with audio podcast

The language of RNA decoded: Study reveals new function for pseudogenes and noncoding RNAs

The central dogma of molecular biology, as proposed in 1970 by Francis Crick and James Watson, holds that genetic information is transferred from DNA to functional proteins by way of messenger RNA (mRNA). This suggests that ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Jun 23, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (11) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

NASA probe aims to unlock Mercury's secrets (Update)

NASA scientists pored Wednesday over stunning new images of Mercury as their MESSENGER probe began a year-long mission to map the surface of the solar system's least-understood planet.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 30, 2011 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (12) | comments 14

Genome-wide map shows precisely where microRNAs do their work

MicroRNAs are the newest kid on the genetic block. By regulating the unzipping of genetic information, these tiny molecules have set the scientific world alight with such wide-ranging applications as onions ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Jun 17, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (9) | comments 0

Scientists crash test DNA's replication machinery

(PhysOrg.com) -- Important molecular machines routinely crash into one another while plying their trades on DNA. New research shows that the enzymes that copy DNA before cell division, called replisomes, are the kings of ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Feb 10, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (9) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Researchers provide proof in humans of RNA interference using targeted nanoparticles

A California Institute of Technology (Caltech)-led team of researchers and clinicians has published the first proof that a targeted nanoparticle -- used as an experimental therapeutic and injected directly ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Mar 21, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (10) | comments 1

MESSENGER

The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) space probe is a robotic NASA spacecraft in orbit around the planet Mercury. The 485-kilogram (1,070 lb) spacecraft was launched aboard a Delta II rocket in August 2004 to study the chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field of Mercury. It became the second mission after 1975's Mariner 10 to reach Mercury successfully when it made a flyby in January 2008, followed by a second flyby in October 2008, and a third flyby in September 2009. MESSENGER is furthermore the first spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury.

The instruments carried by MESSENGER were tested on a complex series of flybys – the spacecraft flew by Earth once, Venus twice, and Mercury itself three times, allowing it to decelerate relative to Mercury with minimal fuel. MESSENGER successfully entered Mercury's orbit on 18 March 2011, and reactivated its science instruments on 24 March, returning the first photo from Mercury orbit on 29 March. MESSENGER's formal science data collection mission began on 4 April 2011.

For more information about MESSENGER, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.