Famous Dragons of Komodo Get Lazy

On this week’s news update…

Polar Vortex

Warming up after the polar vortex…

Catching Rocket Parts

Catching rocket parts for re-use...

Komodo a No-No

And making Komodo a “no-no” for tourists.

First up… Parts of the USA and Canada are warming up again after temperatures plunged in January. In some places, it was minus 40 degrees Celsius – colder than Antarctica! The unusual weather was caused by a shift in the polar vortex, a kind of whirlpool of very cold air that spins around the Earth’s North Pole.

polar vortex

In winter, the polar vortex tends to expand, and sometimes it also shifts and wobbles. In January, it spilled out over much of North America, for the first time since 2014 – causing extremely low temperatures.

Despite the cold snap, scientists have pointed out that, across the world, winters are actually becoming warmer overall, and sudden periods of cold weather are now much less common than they used to be.

Next up… Sending rockets into space is very expensive, so companies like SpaceX want to cut costs by reusing rocket parts. First, though, they have to catch those parts as they fall back to Earth! And that’s where this boat, Mr. Steven, comes in.

Mr. Steven

Mr. Steven’s huge net is designed to catch payload fairings. The payload is whatever the rocket is carrying – such as satellites. The fairings protect the payload for the first few minutes of flight, then fall off.

payload fairings

The SpaceX team has been practicing by dropping fairings from helicopters. Their technique still needs some work, but with each new fairing costing six million dollars, it’ll be worth the effort!

And finally… Do you know what makes Komodo, an island in Indonesia, so special?

Komodo, Indonesia

Here be dragons! Komodo dragons are the largest lizards on Earth. They’re famous for their strength and venomous bite, and they bring a lot of tourists to Komodo.

Komodo dragons

But now some people are worried that all those visitors are making the dragons weak and lazy! Instead of hunting their natural prey, wild animals such as buffalo, the local government claims the dragons have gotten too used to eating food left behind by tourists!

Now, they’re thinking of banning tourists from Komodo for a whole year to encourage the dragons to get back into shape!

That’s all for this week. We’ll see you next time.