Space Lasers, Spiral Snakes & Lost Fish Found! (9.10.26)

0:00Poring in curiosity. Activating podcasts. Let's ignite the experiment. You're Recha! Happy Thursday! It's September 10th, 2026, and we've got a great show for you today! Japan's Haiabusa 2 spacecraft just did something that's never been done before, bouncing a laser off an asteroid while zooming past it at over 11,000 miles per hour. The probe fired its laser twice at an asteroid called Torifune, hitting it from about 12 and 9 miles away. Here's what's really impressive. Those target spots on the asteroid's surface were only about 100 feet wide. The experiment happened back in July, and it'll help space agencies figure out better ways to study asteroids up close in future missions. Here's a story that matters. Never miss what someone just said because they talked too fast. Apple's new watch series 12 and watch Ultra 4 can fix that.

1:02Just double tap the watch crown and it'll transcribe the last 15 seconds for you. The watch is also listened for sounds you might miss, like alarms or doorbells, and they'll send notifications even when your phone isn't nearby. Apple announced these audio intelligence features yesterday at their surprise and shine event. Here's another one. A Fisherwoman in Papua New Guinea just helped rediscover a fish, scientists hadn't seen in 40 years. On June 18th, 2026, Helen Asu was fishing with a traditional hand net near her village when she caught the spinach pipefish, a freshwater relative of seahorses that's found only in the sepic river. This six inch fish uses its long snout to catch prey while hiding among water lilies. Now scientists are excited to study this species that's been missing since 1985. Time to test your memory. Think back to what we just talked about.

2:02How fast was the high-abusa-to spacecraft traveling when it bounced the laser off the asteroid? A. About 5,000 miles per hour. B. Around 8,500 miles per hour. C. Over 11,000 miles per hour. Or D. Fast enough to deliver pizza to Jupiter before it gets cold. You have five seconds to think about your answer. Analyzing data. Observing results. The correct answer is C. Over 11,000 miles per hour. That's roughly 15 times faster than a speeding bullet. If you got that right, you were really listening. Let's take a trip back in time. On this day, September 10, in 2008, the Large Hadron Collider was turned on for the first

3:04time. The world's largest particle accelerator, a 17 year, what'd you say? A 17-mile ring under the Swiss French border started smashing atoms to unlock universe secrets. Wow! Alright, more news coming up. Also making headlines. Scientists in Canada just figured out why snake embryos curl into tight-clockwise spirals. It's because their spines grow way faster than their guts can keep up. The researchers studied over 900 embryo images and found the spiral twist gives the spine room to grow while it's staying connected to the digestive system. The Tutsumiashita from the Canadian Museum of Nature says it's like a strap buckling when one side gets longer. And that's exactly what's happening inside those eggs. Back in the headlines, scientists in South Dakota have picked up a puzzling signal from that luck Zeppelin detector that might be our first real glimpse of dark matter. This mysterious stuff makes up most of the universe, but we've never seen it directly.

4:05What's surprising is that the signal suggests dark matter interacts with regular matter in a more complex way than expected. For years, particle physics seemed stuck after finding the Higgs boson in 2012, but this discovery shows we might not need bigger machines, just more creative approaches. Next up, mathematicians have been exploring the Langlands program for decades, trying to uncover hidden connections between different areas of math like secret tunnels in a huge city. David Benzvi from the University of Texas, Austin, says most mathematicians have heard of it, but don't fully get it. This program sometimes called a grand unified theory of mathematics, because it hints that all these separate math topics might actually be linked in ways we're just beginning to understand. Okay, one more. This one comes from our latest batch of stories. In what year was the Higgs boson discovered? Is it a 2008?

5:07Maybe B 2015? How about C 2012? Or D, the same year scientists invented invisible pizza. Take five seconds and lock in your answer. Analyzing data. Observing results. The correct answer is C 2012. The Higgs boson is nicknamed the God Particle, and helps explain why things in the universe have mass. If you got it, nice. Time for our discussion question. Would you rather discover a fish that's been missing for 40 years, or find a brand new species no one's ever seen? Think about it and share your thoughts with someone. Big shout out to Emmanuel Lutheran School in Asheville, North Carolina. If you want your school featured, leave us a review.

6:09We'd love to give you a shout out. Ready for a new word? Here it is. Today's word is eloquent, fluent, or persuasive in speaking or writing. Here it is in a sentence. The astronaut gave an eloquent speech describing the breathtaking view of Earth from the space station. Now you've got a new word in your vocabulary. Nice. Time for a fun fact. Hurricanes released the energy equivalent of 10 atomic bombs per second. You can tell your friends that one. Wow. Before we go, here's one to make you laugh. Where do fish go to school? Because they live in schools. You're welcome. Today, we covered Japan's laser bounce off an asteroid, Apple's new audio features for watches. A Fisherwoman who found a fish lost to science for 40 years, why snake embryos spiral, hints

7:10of dark matter in South Dakota, and Matt's mysterious Langlands program. That's all for today. See you tomorrow on Science Kids News Flash. Science is happening all around us every single day. And there's always something new to discover. Happy and curious and we'll see you tomorrow with more Mind-blowing Science. Thanks for joining us on Science Kids News Flash. This podcast was brought to you by Kids News Flash Universe. Be sure to check out our other podcasts, Kids Ask History, Space Kids News Flash, Animal Battle Royale, AI Kids News Flash, and the Daily Catcast. Experiment concluded. Curioxy Preserve. Until our next discovery.