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Good morning and welcome to Kid News.
I'm Tori. Today is Thursday, March 6, 2025 and we begin with more excitement on the moon.
Just days after Firefly made history with a picture -perfect lunar landing of its Blue Ghost rover, Intuitive Machines is hoping to follow suit.
It's the company's second stab.
The first fell over shortly after touchdown last year.
The Athena IM -2 spacecraft is due to land near the moon's south pole today, at around 1230 Eastern Time.
It will search for signs of ice, analyze the environment, and release two small rovers.
One will travel about a mile to gather soil samples and map the terrain.
The other, the Micronova Hopper, will leap like a grasshopper a total of five times to explore regions that are tough to reach on wheels.
Like Firefly, the IM2 has a limited time to do all its tests before the sun sets for the two -week -long lunar night when temperatures plunge to minus 400 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 250 degrees Celsius.
You might call it a small triumph.
A company trying to bring back some extinct species such which is the giant woolly mammoth, is celebrating after creating something much more modest, a hairy mouse.
Woolly mammoths last roamed Earth some 4 ,000 years ago.
Their closest living relative today is the Asian elephant.
A mouse is a far cry from an elephant, but by making a rodent with shaggy woolly mammoth -like hair, researchers at Colossal, a Dallas, Texas company, are trying to isolate and splice genes that contribute to traits of the long -extinct beast.
They pick rodents to experiment on because they're small and plentiful, but some critics are unimpressed.
They say breeding mice with shaggy hair is a far step from genetically recreating a woolly mammoth.
Colossal is continuing, despite the criticism.
Next, they plan to genetically modify elephants.
Tennis legend Serena Williams has a new title to add to her resume, owner of the WNBA expansion team, the Toronto Tempo.
Williams will actually be half -owner, along with Larry Tannenbaum, a Canadian businessman.
The Tempo, the WNBA's first expansion team in Canada, will begin play in the 2026 season.
Williams will contribute to the team's look, from jersey designs to merchandise.
She says her investment is not just about basketball, but about showcasing the value and potential of female athletes.
Since retiring from tennis in 2022, the former No. 1 player has become a minority owner of the National Women's Soccer League's Angel City FC, the National Football League's Miami Dolphins, and TGL's Los Angeles Golf Club.
New findings this morning about our electronic devices and their impact on our brains.
Researchers in Germany asked 25 adults to restrict their smartphone use for 72 hours.
Only work -related use and absolutely necessary communications were allowed.
After the 72 hours, participants were shown a variety of images considered to be neutral, such as flowers and boats, along with pictures of smartphones.
Brain scans reveal people were non -responsive when they saw the neutral images, but experienced a surge in the area of the brain that rewards cravings when they saw the phone photos.
These results, researchers say, add to the argument that smartphone use is addictive.
On the bright side, they say some phone activities actually have positive benefits and build cognitive skills, such as playing chess and Sudoku.
What a difference a few weeks make.
Late last month, scientists were closely monitoring an asteroid that they calculated had a 3 % chance of hitting Earth in 2032.
While 3 % is not enormous, it's still greater than the chance of most asteroids impacting our planet.
So astronomers went back to the drawing board to double -check the path of the asteroid and their work.
Their conclusion? The odds of it hitting Earth are actually near zero.
The chunk of space rock in question was discovered just a few months ago and was about to disappear behind the sun in April, making it crucial to get as much data about it as possible now.
The asteroid that won't hit us after all is between 130 and 300 feet across.
Still to come, what's for dinner?
The U .S. Fish and Wildlife Service has some crazy critters it would like you to try.
But first, the Womstad family of Decatur, Georgia wants to say a happy 10th birthday to Lucy, who loves musical theater, tap dancing, and is a proud member of the House of Amistad at Talley Street Upper.
Lucy, your mom, dad, Vera, Emery, Lulebel, and Winnie all wish you a happy double -digits day.
Now, today's Kid News Quiz.
The Athena IM -2 spacecraft has a small probe called the Micronova Hopper that will get around on the moon's surface in a very unusual way.
What is it? It will hop like a grasshopper.
What tennis legend has just bought an interest in the WNBA expansion team, the Toronto Tempo?
Serena Williams. What happened when subjects in a German smartphone study were shown images of phones.
The part of their brains that controls cravings was activated.
A space rock thought to have a three percent chance of hitting Earth in 2032 now has what chance?
Near zero. In today's KidNews kicker, the U .S.
Fish and Wildlife Service is now urging Americans to fill their bellies with some questionable culinary creations.
As part of its recent National Invasive Species Awareness Week, the agency has released a list of five creatures they're encouraging people to hunt and eat to protect nature's balance.
Top of the list is the Nutria, a large rodent that looks like a beaver but without the flat tail.
It's from South America and was brought to the U .S.
in the 1930s for its fur.
When the fur craze fizzled, the Nutrias exploded in numbers and devastated plant life.
The service's idea?
A Facebook post with the headline, Eat Me, I'm Invasive and Delicious, and the catchy slogan, Save a Swamp, Sauté a Nutria.
Other animals on the list?
Florida's green iguana, which supposedly tastes like chicken, and wild hogs, which are found in the southeastern U .S., Texas, and California, and ravage farmland and wetlands.
Fish and Wildlife Service says they make great smoke barbecue and hearty chili, as well as tasty burgers and tacos.
Thanks again to the Walmstads of Decatur, Georgia for sponsoring today's quiz.
A shout out for Lucy who's turning 10 and hello to all her awesome friends and her teacher Ms. Childs at Talley Street Upper.
And now some shout outs for our other Kid News classrooms.
Mrs. Milhone and her kind Bulldogs at Palm Beach Day Academy in Palm Beach, Florida.
Mrs. Bergen and her Bulldogs at Eastside Intermediate School in Harrisburg, Illinois.
and Miss Wiley and the big dogs at the Hiawatha School in Hiawatha, Iowa.
Thanks for listening.
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We'll see you back here for more Kid News tomorrow morning.
