 Top Stories in Science |
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NASA revealed images sent by its MESSENGER probe in January, when it snapped up some 1,200 photos taken from some 120 miles from the planet's surface. MESSENGER, the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging spacecraft launched by NASA in 2004, raced past Mercury on January 14 in the first visit in almost 33 years to the mysterious small planet, in the first of four sweeps over Mercury by the probe. Now, scientists have analyzed these unprecedented images and have come up with 11 papers published yesterday, July 3, in Science. It appears that the innermost planet of our...
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The innermost planet of the solar system, Mercury, revealed
its mysteries 33 years after the first flyby performed by Mariner 10 in
1974-1975. In January 2008, the MESSENGER spacecraft sent never-before-seen
images of Mercury’s surface, expanding the data scientists have had at their
disposal until now.
For most of us, Mercury is one of those planets that allow
the naked eye to watch its spectacle in the morning and evening twilight. For scientists,
there are still a lot of unanswered questions about the planet that looks
somewhat similar to the Moon.
The images sent by MESSENGER...
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A study by Italian researchers may offer the answer to sudden infant death syndrome, the third leading cause of death among infants aged between a week and a year, killing 2,500 infants annually in the U.S. and thousands more globally. Some previous studies have linked SIDS to smoking around infants and during pregnancy; some others have stressed the importance of putting babies to sleep on their backs, thus the SIDS dropping almost three quarters. According to the new findings, a malfunction in the regulation of the brain chemical serotonin may be at the root of SIDS. Serotonin is a...
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The scientists at NASA analysed a set of photos taken by the Messenger probe in January, and reached the conclusion that Solar System’s smallest planet, Mercury, is continuously shriking. According to their estimates, the planet is now smaller by more than a mile in diameter and the process is very likely to continue, as a result of the fact that the planet’s core is slowly cooling down. Even though its metal core is still active, the fact that it is cooling leads to the solidification of the upper layers and to their intrusion over the molten layers below."Cooling of the planet's core...
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30 years since it was launched in 1977, Voyager 2 reached and crossed the edge of our solar system where the solar wind still manages to push back against the interstellar wind particles that try to enter it. This boundary is called the termination shock front and the space that it defines is called the heliosphere. Voyager 1 already crossed this boundary in 2004, but some of its sensors had failed before the probe got to the termination shock, so scientist weren’t able to get enough information about the physical phenomena that take place in that region. Because of this, Voyager 2 remained...
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| Science |
The Phoenix Mars Lander received an extra day for digging
around the planet’ soil, after the first...
After the first spacewalk was successfully completed, the shuttle and station crews will open the...
Global warming censorship - that
is exactly what the Bush administration has been practicing for...
Discovery has displaced its two spacewalkers, Michael Fossum
and Ronald Garran, for their first...
The latest geological investigation
on last summer’s Crandall Canyon mine collapse concluded that...
Space Shuttle Discovery made a
perfect docking with the International Space Station on Monday,...
NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander took
the first sample of soil this weekend, as part of a test of the...
NASA officials announced that the space shuttle Discovery
docked successfully with the...
The space shuttle Discovery is due to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) in little...
The first day in space for the
Discovery STS-124 mission started off with an inspection of the...
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