Kids News - Environment Articles

Though we are treated to several meteor showers throughout the year, most pale in comparision to the grand finale – the Geminids. Expected to be at their peak on Thursday and Friday night (Dec. 13-14, 2018), the dependable meteors rank high in both quantity and quality. Nicknamed the “900-pound gorilla of meteor showers” by NASA, they outweigh other dust streams by factors of between 5 to 500!...

At the tender age of seven, while his friends were spending their allowances on “frivolous” things like candy and toys, Jose Adolfo Quisocola was busy saving money for more essential purchases. To try to get his peers to do the same, the youngster from Arequipa, Peru came up with the innovative idea of an eco-bank, which allows kids of all ages to become economically independent and financially savvy – while also helping the environment....

On November 26, 2018, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California held their breath as the InSight spacecraft attempted the most challenging part of its 300 million-mile-long journey to Mars – landing. At 2:53 p.m. EST, following a few nail-biting moments, the room erupted in joy at the sound of the official “beep,” and the grainy photo of the Red Planet which confirmed that the lander had not only touched down but was functioning as expected....

Over the last couple of decades, astronomers have identified thousands of planets outside our solar system. However, they have been unable to find confirmation of a moon revolving around any of the distant worlds, mainly because the generally smaller satellites are harder to spot. Now, some researchers from Columbia University believe they have found evidence of an alien moon orbiting a gaseous exoplanet, which lies almost 8,000 light years away....

This year’s Halloween experience was elevated by several spooky surprises from nature. First, there was news of the “Death Comet’s” November 11 Earth flyby . Then, on October 23, 2018, scientists aboard the E/V Nautilus stumbled upon a white octopus with translucent “wings’ that looked more like a ghost from outer space, than the eight-legged mollusks we are accustomed to seeing....

With the Halloween festivities over, most people will spend the next few days taking down the spine-chilling decorations and tossing the pumpkin Jack-o’-Lanterns, or scary monsters, that they spent hours creating. While the millions of gourds that end up in landfills every November is alarming, even more so is the massive amount of food waste generated since most people fail to take advantage of the fruit’s edible flesh and seeds....

Always wished the Earth had a second moon? Then you will be pleased to hear that the Chengdu Aerospace Science and Technology Microelectronics System Research Institute has plans to launch multiple mini moons, the first one of which will appear in the skies as early as 2020....

It’s creepy, spooky, and scheduled to rendezvous with Earth shortly after Halloween, on November 11, 2018. Before you get your hopes up, we are not talking about an alien, but asteroid 2015 TB145, a skull-shaped space rock nicknamed ”Death Comet.” This is the second appearance of the eerie-looking asteroid that was first observed by the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS-1 (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) telescope on October 10, 2015....

While the discovery of a new species is always newsworthy, that of a fish spectacular enough to be named Tosanoides Aphrodite, after the Greek goddess of love and beauty, is even more so! Hudson Pinheiro and Luiz Rocha were exploring the deep-sea coral reefs, nearly 400-feet underwater, around Brazil’s Saint Paul’s Rocks archipelago, when they spotted the dazzling pink and yellow fish. The California Academy Of Sciences researchers were so mesmerized by the colorful ocean-dweller that it was only later, when viewing the video footage, that they noticed the 10-foot sixgill shark that had been hovering above....