Long segments of RNA - encoded in our DNA but not translated into protein - are key to physically manipulating DNA in order to activate certain genes, say researchers at The Wistar Institute. These non-coding RNA-activators (ncRNA-a) have a crucial role in turning genes on and off during early embryonic development, researchers say, and have also been connected with diseases, including some cancers, in adults.

In an online article of the journal Nature, a team of scientists led by Wistar's Ramin Shiekhattar, Ph.D., detail the mechanism by which long non-coding RNA-activators promote gene expression. They show how these RNA molecules help proteins in the cell to create a loop of DNA in order to open up genes for transcription. Their experiments have also described how particular ncRNA-a molecules are related to FG syndrome, a genetic disease linked to severe neurological and physical deficits. "These ncRNA-activators can activate specific genes by working with large protein complexes, filling in a big piece of the puzzle," said Shiekhattar, Herbert Kean, M.D., Family Professor and senior author of the study. "Our DNA encodes thousands of these ncRNA-activators, each with a role in timing the expression of a specific gene. As we learn more about non-coding RNA, I believe we will have a profoundly better understanding of how our genes function."

Piecing together the true nature of the meteor that detonated over Russia would benefit by observations likely gleaned by U.S. military spacecraft.

But for several years, that data has been stamped classified and not made available to the scientific community that study near-Earth objects (NEOs) and any potential hazard to Earth from these celestial interlopers.

In the wake of the Russian meteor explosion, there is a renewed call to make data gathered by both space systems and ground networks speedily available to scientists.

The extraterrestrial double whammy that Earth only partially avoided on Friday has triggered an immediate response from astronomers. Several have announced plans to create state-of-the-art detection systems to give warning of incoming asteroids and meteoroids. These include projects backed by Nasa as well as proposals put forward by private space contractors.

In each case, scientists want to develop techniques that can pinpoint relatively small but still potentially devastating meteoroids, comets and asteroids that threaten to strike Earth. These would give notice of impact of several days or possibly weeks and allow threatened areas to be evacuated.

The announcements of the various plans follow Friday's meteorite crash that caused devastation in Chelyabinsk, Russia. On the same day, a 150ft-diameter asteroid swept to within 17,000 miles of Earth.

The fact that the two events happened together has been dismissed as "a cosmic coincidence" by scientists. Nevertheless, astronomers - many gathered at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Boston this weekend - have been quick to reassure the public that they have plans to provide better warnings of future impacts.

"The hundreds of people injured in Russia show it is time to take action and no longer be passive about these events," said Rick Tumlinson, chairman of the US company Deep Space Industries. His company is preparing to launch a series of small spacecraft later this decade. These are aimed at surveying nearby asteroids to see if they can be mined for metals and ores.

However the fleet could also be used to monitor small, difficult-to-detect objects that threaten to strike Earth. Deep Space Industries - which is based in McLean, Virginia - proposes building 10 spacecraft at a cost of $100m (£65m) over the next four years, though it has not indicated who will fund missions.

Or at least those we know about. And where are the known meteorite landing places on earth? These impact zones show where scientists have found meteorites, or the impact craters of meteorites, some dating back as far as the year 2,300BC. The data is from the US Meteorological Society and doesn't show those places where meteorites may have fallen but not been discovered.

The world will have to live with surprise asteroid attacks on the scale of Friday's Russian fireball, at least for a while.

The meteor that exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk without warning Friday (Feb. 15), damaging hundreds of buildings and wounding more than 1,000 people, was caused by a space rock about 50 feet (15 meters) wide, researchers said.

Asteroids of this size are both difficult to detect and incredibly numerous, so it will take a long time for astronomers to find and map out the orbits of all the potentially dangerous ones. Besides, researchers have bigger fish to fry.

"Defending the Earth against tiny asteroids such as the one that passed over Siberia and impacted there is a challenging issue that is something that is not currently our goal," Paul Chodas, a scientist with the Near Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told reporters Friday (Feb. 15).

"We are focusing on the larger asteroids first," Chodas added. "They are the ones that are the most hazardous."

A massive asteroid that crashed into Earth left behind a large impact crater in Australia and changed the entire landscape of the planet, scientists from the Australian National University (ANU) and University of Queensland claim in a recently-published study.

According to Stuart Gary of ABC News in Australia, the impact zone is centered in the East Warburton Basin in the northeastern part of South Australia.

It was created by an asteroid believed to be more than twelve miles (20 km) wide that crashed into the planet sometime between 360 million and 298 million years ago, the authors reported in the latest edition of the journal Tectonophysics.

VegaStar Carpentier in Paris passed along this artist's impression of 50000 Quaoar, a small rocky world with its own moon, located in the outer solar system. It's massive enough to be considered a dwarf planet - much as Pluto is now considered a dwarf planet - under new guidelines from the International Astronomical Union (IAU). But the IAU hasn't recognized Quaoar as a dwarf planet, yet. VegaStar wrote:

This is an artistic view in the foreground Quaoar, Neptune, and our sun ..

What is Quaoar?

Michael Brown and Chadwick Trujillo of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena discovered this object in 2002. It is extremely faint as seen from Earth, but they used the large Palomar 48-inch telescope to notice it creeping in front of the star background. Its motion in front of the stars showed that it is closer to us than the stars, a member of our own solar system. From the first, Quaoar appeared relatively bright for such a distant object, but it was too small for even large telescopes to see in any detail.

Asteroid 2012 DA14 had a close approach with Earth at 1925 UT on 2013 Feb. 15. at about 0.09 LD (Lunar Distances = ~384,000 kilometers) or 0.0002 AU (1 AU = ~150 million kilometers). For more info about this asteroid and its close approach see our previous post.

Below you can find a selection (in chronological order) of our images & animations taken before, during and after the close approach.

Image of 2012 DA14 taken remotely from Australia on February 15, 2013 at 17:40UT. Exposure time 5 seconds with a 0.50-m f/6.8 astrograph + CCD + f/4.5 focal reducer from Q62 (iTelescope Observatory, Siding Spring). The asteroid was then of magnitude ~9.5 and moving at ~1140 "/min and less than 2 hours before its close approach of 19:25UT.
Here you can see a short animation made by using 3x5-second exposures.

NASA experts will hold a teleconference for news media at 4 p.m. EST today to discuss a meteor that streaked through the skies over Russia's Urals region this morning.

Scientists have determined the Russia meteor is not related to asteroid 2012 DA14 that will safely pass Earth today at a distance of more than 17,000 miles. Early assessments of the Russia meteor indicate it was about one-third the size of 2012 DA14 and traveling in a different direction.

Panelists for the teleconference are:
-- Bill Cooke, lead for the Meteoroid Environments Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
-- Paul Chodas, research scientist in the Near Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

News media interested in participating should dial 888-843-7186 and use the passcode METEOR.

The teleconference will be carried live online. For detailed information concerning the Earth flyby of 2012 DA14, visit here.

Generations of stars can be seen in this infrared portrait from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. In this wispy star-forming region, called W5, the oldest stars can be seen as blue dots in the centers of the two hollow cavities (other blue dots are background and foreground stars not associated with the region).
Younger stars line the rims of the cavities, and some can be seen as pink dots at the tips of the elephant-trunk-like pillars. The white knotty areas are where the youngest stars are forming. Red shows heated dust that pervades the region's cavities, while green highlights dense clouds.