Welcome to CNN.

10.

It's been a little while, and by that I mean decades since a spacecraft tried to pick up some rocks from the moon.

But that's what an unmanned Chinese probe did this week.

And if the mission successfully brings those rocks back to Earth, it'll make China the third country to do this behind the United States and the former Soviet Union.

Could the lunar samples that China gathers be different than what's already been collective?

Possibly the Chinese probe landed in the dark spot of the moon called the Ocean of Storms, and what it picked up could give rise to new theories about Earth's natural satellite.

This is quite a scientific and technological feat for the Chinese.

This latest mission involved the spacecraft robotic arms, scooping up rocks from the surface of the moon and also having a 2 m long drill retrieving soil samples from underground.

And all of these samples have now been packed and sealed in a canister in a part of the spacecraft that will be making its way back to Earth.

It's expected to land in northern China later this month.

So this is quite an important step forward in this country's ambitious space program, which is now a pillar for its national development under President Xi Jinping.

But one thing that's worth noting is all of these accomplishments so far are things that United States has done in the past, sometimes decades in the past.

So what the Chinese have done is they were making their own first by doing things slightly differently.

For example, this time they landed this probe in the part of the moon.

The U.

S had not visited in the past, and also they were catching up fast with the U.

S.

Because China is a late comer in space explorations.

But just in the past decade they have successfully launched three manned space missions and now, of course, three successful lunar probe missions.

Currently, they also having a Mars mission going on there, also about to start building their own full scale space station Now, all of this, of course, has been a source of great pride for the government and the people here.

But this also has quite a geopolitical dimension, Aziz Well, because NASA is prohibited from cooperating with the Chinese space program due to national concern security considerations.

So, according to many experts, this latest mission is a message from Beijing to the rest of the world that China is increasingly becoming a legitimate alternative to a US led space.

Water.

Now a space discovery recently published in the monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, a research group, says it's identified an exoplanet a planet that orbits around a different star than our sun.

That's 210 light years away from Earth.

You can't see it with a telescope.

Researchers say they identify exoplanets by how much they appear to dim the Starlight when they pass in front of a star we can observe.

Here's CNN 10 contributor.

Tyler Mauldin Carl Researchers say they have discovered a planet on the very edge of our solar system, and it features some rocky weather.

This lava planet, named K 2141 B, say that three times fast was discovered in 2018, according to a statement from McGill University.

Ah, Lava Planet is a fiery hot world that circles so close to its host star that some regions are likely oceans of molten lava Que 2141 B is also unique because it orbits close enough to its star that the two are gravitationally synchronized.

This leads to two thirds of the planet having endless amounts of daylight and the other third having perpetual darkness pretty cool.

I mean hot.

Anyway.

This has major implications for the planet now and in the future.

The dark side experiences temperatures as cold as minus 200 degrees Celsius, while the sunlit side has a temperature of approximately 3000 degrees Celsius.

Not only is that enough to melt rocks and give way to the lava oceans, but according to a recent study by McGill University, York University and the Indian Institute of Technology, it's hard enough to entirely vaporize rocks.

This creates a vaporizer rock atmosphere on the planet, like the Earth's water cycle.

These minerals then rain back down as chunks of rock, and the cycle repeats.

The study predicts Carl.

The cycle will slowly change.

K 2141 B surface and atmosphere over time.

12th trivia.

What US state is known as the Beehive State, Washington, North Dakota, Mississippi or Utah.

North Dakota produces the most honey, but it's the 45th ST.

A k a.

Utah.

That's the Beehive State.

A farm in Utah is going vertical and robotic to feed its animals.

And here's what that looks like.

Automated towers use light emitting diodes or led lights to help grow fresh animal feed.

The farmers say it takes six days to grow that feed from seeds to harvest, and that the process produces a predictable, optimum crop.

Every time.

Is this the future of farming, or at least farming animal feed their pros and cons to going vertical.

It takes up less land area than traditional farming, but it could be expensive to get started.

You've gotta have the building and the machines.

Vertical farming uses less water than traditional farming, but it relies on artificial light and a lot of electricity.

The new technology may not work well for all crops, and critics say farming without natural soil can't be considered organic.

But for the vertical farmers in Utah who are concerned about long term weather and the challenges brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, they say this is an efficient solution and that it has a lot of potential moving forward.

Next, we're sinking to new depths on CNN.

10.

No, that's not a criticism of my puns.

It's because we're diving into what's believed to be the world's deepest swimming pool.

It's located in Poland, took more than two years and $10.5 million to build.

And if you're wondering why someone might construct something like this, there are several reasons most still Uh huh, yeah.

Ah, not a lot of snow in the forecast for Albuquerque, New Mexico.

It's in the Chihuahuan Desert, so But that doesn't mean people there don't wanna build a snowman.

And they did, in a manner of speaking, using tumbleweeds.

Can you call him Frosty?

We'll call him weedy.

This is an annual tradition dating back 25 years.

He is wearing a mask this time because 2020 the tumbleweeds are spray painted white and accentuated with recycled materials for the hat and eyes.

And if that doesn't make you smile, maybe you're a diaspora sport.

Sorry if that causes a dust up, but a tumbleweed snowman is rooted in the Christmas spirit.

It give even Scrooge his just deserts and weed out any haters.

So if you think all tumbleweeds good for is dust in the wind Well, that's the last straw.

I'm coral.

Lasers and Fridays are awesome.

I want to give a shout out to a school that's got heart.

That's Heart Butte High School.

It's located in the heart Butte, Montana.

Thank you for your comment on our YouTube channel.

We have two weeks left on the air in 2020.

So have a great weekend and please join us again on Monday.

Yeah, Good.