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| July 03, 2009 |
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our time will build eternity |
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Magnetic Tornadoes Could Liberate Mercury's Tenuous Atmosphere Greenebelt MD (SPX) Jun 04, 2009 
As the closest planet to the sun, Mercury is scorching hot, with daytime temperatures of more than 800 degrees Fahrenheit (approximately 450 degrees Celsius). It is also the smallest rocky planet, so its gravity is weak, only about 38 percent of Earth's. These conditions make it hard for the planet to hold on to its atmosphere, which is extremely thin, and invisible to the human eye. Howev ... read moreMagnesium Detected During Second Flyby Of Mercury 
Baltimore MD (SPX) May 05, 2009NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft served up another curveball to a University of Colorado at Boulder team after a second flyby of the hot inner planet Oct. 6 detected magnesium - an element created inside exploding stars and which is found in many medicine cabinets on Earth - clumped in the tenuous atmosphere of the planet. Scientists had suspected magnesium would be present, but were surprised ... more
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An Active Mercury
Huntsville AL (SPX) May 01, 2009A NASA spacecraft gliding over the surface of Mercury has revealed that the planet's atmosphere, magnetosphere, and its geological past display greater levels of activity than scientists first suspected. The probe also discovered a large impact basin named "Rembrandt" measuring about 430 miles in diameter - equal to the distance between Washington and Boston. These new findings and more ar ... more Mercury flyby unveiled active inner planet: studies 
Washington (AFP) April 30, 2009The US space probe MESSENGER's second fly-by of the planet Mercury in October 2008 revealed the solar system's smallest planet to be far more active than previously thought, four studies said Thursday. The MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging) probe's cameras took more than 1,200 images of the surface, including details of a mammoth well-preserved 692-kilom ... more Messenger Approaches Three Billion Miles Enters Fourth Solar Conjunction 
Laurel MD (SPX) Dec 27, 2008On December 26, the Messenger spacecraft will have traveled three billion miles since its launch, marking somewhat more than 60 percent of the probe's journey toward its destination to be inserted into orbit about Mercury. "That Messenger's odometer reading has reached another major milestone reminds us of the long and complex route that our spacecraft must follow," offers Principal Invest ... more MESSENGER Poised For Third Mercury Encounter 
Laurel MD (SPX) Dec 11, 2008MESSENGER completed the second part of a two-part deep-space maneuver today, providing the remaining 10% velocity change needed to place the probe on course to fly by Mercury for the third time in September 2009. Unlike most maneuvers, this one was conducted in a so-called "open loop," explained MESSENGER Project Manager Peter Bedini. "In closed-loop maneuvers, the accelerometers are ... more |
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MESSENGER Gains Speed
Laurel MD (SPX) Oct 20, 2008Shortly after 4 a.m. this morning, MESSENGER reached its greatest speed relative to the Sun. The spacecraft, nearly 70% closer to the Sun than Earth, was traveling nearly 140,880 miles per hour (62.979 kilometers per second) relative to the Sun. At this speed MESSENGER would traverse the distance from Earth to Earth's Moon in only 1.7 hours! Even at this great speed MESSENGER is ... more Messenger Sets Record For Accuracy Of Planetary Flyby 
Laurel MD (SPX) Oct 13, 2008By using solar sailing - rotating the spacecraft and tilting its solar panels to use the very small pressure from sunlight to alter the spacecraft's trajectory - Messenger navigators have achieved a new record for the smallest miss distance between the intended and actual closest approach distance during a flyby of a planet other than Earth. On October 6, 2008, the probe flew 199.4 ... more Mercury As Never Seen Before 
Huntsville AL (SPX) Oct 09, 2008Yesterday, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft flew past Mercury and photographed a broad swath of never-before-seen terrain. The first of more than 1,200 high-resolution images are arriving back at Earth now. "The MESSENGER team is extremely pleased by the superb performance of the spacecraft and the payload," says MESSENGER Principal Investigator Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of ... more MESSENGER Returns Images From Mercury Fly-By
Washington DC (SPX) Oct 08, 2008MESSENGER is the first mission sent to orbit the planet closest to the sun. On Oct. 6, 2008, at roughly 4:40 a.m. ET, MESSENGER flew by Mercury for the second time this year. During the encounter, the probe swung just 125 miles (200 kilometers) above the cratered surface of Mercury, snapping hundreds of pictures and collecting a variety of other data from the planet as it gains a critical ... more |
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