Kids News - Articles with 400-600 Words

After a relatively calm 2016, Europe’s most active volcano — Mount Etna in Sicily, Italy — came to life on February 27. The eruption that occurred at about 6:00 pm local time from the relatively new Southeast Crater formed by a 1978 eruption lit up the dark Sicilian skies with fountains of bright orange lava. As is characteristic of all Mount Etna ejections, the lava stream was accompanied by Strombolian eruptions. The short-lived, explosive outbursts that are caused by trapped bubbles of gas escaping through the lava can reach heights of several hundred meters, making for a spectacular show....

On February 21, after a week of feasting on her favorite treats that included a multi-tiered ice cake, giant panda Bao Bao started preparing for her one-way journey to China. The National Zoo resident began the morning with a hearty breakfast comprising 17 pounds (8 kg) of bamboo and 5.4 pounds (2.4 kg) of leafeater biscuits before heading out for some fresh air. Shortly after, she was put inside a custom-made, four-by-six, steel travel crate and transported to the Washington Dulles International Airport....

Winter means different things to different people. For some, it is the chance to cozy up to a warm fire, for others, a time to frolic in the snow. Then there are those that head to the Takhini Hot Springs in Yukon, Canada to participate in the wacky and hilarious International Hair Freezing Contest....

The about million species of insects known to humanity thus far have managed to neatly fit into one of 31 existing scientific orders. However, when George Poinar, Jr., the world’s leading expert on plant and animal life forms, found preserved in amber, saw the carcass of this 100-million-year-old insect, he knew it would require its own scientific order – an incredibly rare event....

While the world is still debating the safety of self-driving cars, the futuristic city-state of Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, is preparing to launch an autonomous aerial taxi. Starting in July, commuters will be able to summon the world’s first passenger drone, the EHang 184, to transport them to their desired destination without having to deal with Dubai’s congested freeways....

In January 2016, Professor Mike Brown, the California Institute of Technology researcher who demoted Pluto to dwarf status, reported that he and some colleagues had discovered evidence of a ninth planet in our solar system. Dubbed Planet X, the gaseous giant believed to be two to three times the size of Earth, purportedly has a highly elliptical orbit and takes over 20,000 earth years to revolve around the sun. Though exciting, the find was based on computer simulations, which means that no one has ever seen this mysterious planet....

The fact that the Dionaea muscipula, or Venus flytrap, feeds on unsuspecting insects by luring them into its jaw-like leaves with sweet-smelling nectar has been known for centuries. However, scientists thought the prey only provided the plant with essential nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous that are severely lacking in their native habitats – the subtropical wetlands of North and South Carolina. They had assumed that like other vegetation the carnivorous plants obtained their energy through photosynthesis – using light energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into sugar and oxygen. It turns out they were wrong....

A large otter the size of a wolf, roamed the wooded marshlands of China’s Yunnan Province about six million years ago. Xiaoming Wang, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in California, and her team arrived at this conclusion after an extensive study of fossils found in the 6.2 million-year-old sediment of the Shuitangba coal mine in Yunnan, China in 2010 and 2015....

Unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, have tremendous potential to deliver emergency supplies to remote or disaster-struck regions. However, they are expensive to mass produce and often require special pads to launch and land safely. Additionally, the need for the aircraft to maintain enough battery life to return, cuts the delivery distance to half. But these issues may be history, thanks to an affordable and disposable drone that is designed for a one way journey....