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The U.S. Supreme Court Confirmation Process; A Solar Eruption; The Red Planet; A Volcanic Eruption; A World Record For Stacking M&Ms.

CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Welcome to the show on this Thursday, February 24th. I`m Carl Azuz, bringing your objective overview of current events.

The U.S. Supreme Court is our first topic. President Joe Biden has reportedly met with three potential nominees to the high court and by next

Monday, he`s planning to announce his choice for the court`s next associate justice.

On our January 28 show which you can find in our YouTube archives, we explored some of the likely front-runners for President Biden`s nomination.
 

archive [ˋɑrkaɪv] n. 数据库；档案

He`s expected to follow through in a campaign promise he made to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court. If she`s confirmed, it would be

a historic appointment though an ABC/Ipsos poll conducted last month found that most Americans wanted the president to consider all possible nominees.

Whoever is nominated will still have to be confirmed and whoever gets confirmed will be replacing 83-year-old Associate Justice Stephen Breyer

who`s retiring. Justice Breyer began his term on the high court in 1994 after his nomination by then President Bill Clinton.

There`s no limit to how long justices can serve. The U.S. Constitution says they can hold their office during, quote, good behavior. But Democrats have

pressured Justice Breyer to retire during this term. Why?

The timing of these nominations matters a great deal to America`s political parties. Republicans generally want to seat conservative justices on the

Supreme Court. Democrats generally want to seat liberal justices. Six of the current Supreme Court members were appointed by Republican presidents,

three were appointed by Democratic presidents. Those include Justice Breyer.

So, President Biden and his fellow Democrats who control the Senate by the slimmest of margins want to try to get Breyer`s replacement confirmed this

year because the midterm elections in November could change the political makeup of the Senate. If Republicans win back control of that chamber, it
 

makeup [ˋmek͵ʌp] n. the manner of construction of something and the arrangement of its parts

could make it harder for President Biden to get a liberal justice confirmed.

CNN 10 contributor Rachel Janfaza has more on this process.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RACHEL JANFAZA, CNN 10 CONTRIBUTOR: Now that Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has decided to retire, President Joe Biden will nominate his

successor. But just because Biden nominates a successor does not mean that his pick will automatically be confirmed to the highest bench in the land.

The Constitution does not require that the candidate is a judge or even a lawyer. But that`s been the case in recent history. Once Biden announces

his pick, the confirmation process heads over to the Senate, where there will be hearings over the candidate in the Senate Judiciary Committee,

ahead of a Senate vote over whether or not to confirm the nominee.

That vote requires a simple majority of 51 senators. If it`s a 50-50 split, Vice President Kamala Harris could break the tie. You might be wondering,
 

split [splɪt] n. 分裂

how long does this process take?

Well, there`s no clear answer to that question. It really depends. Usually, it takes months, but when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in 2020, former

President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans confirmed now Justice Amy Coney Barrett in less than a month. So time will tell.

But with the 2022 midterm elections on the horizon, Senate Democrats will likely look to follow a quick timeline towards confirmation, while they

have the Senate majority.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ (voice-over): Ten-second trivia:

What accounts for more than 99 percent of the mass in our solar system?

The planets, the sun, carbon or oxygen?

Believed to be composed mainly of hydrogen and helium, the sun holds the vast majority of our solar system`s mass.
 

helium [ˋhilɪəm] n.【化】氦

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: And that`s our first stop in a trio of stories about science. We`re going to start with something far away and work our way in.
 

trio [ˋtrio] n. 三重奏组合

The sun at a distance of about 93 million miles, give or take, recently had an eruption that just happened to have been caught on camera. Scientists
 

give or take 大约、差不多; possibly a little more or less than the amount or time mentioned

say this was a highly energetic explosion of light solar material and energy that occurred earlier this month and thankfully it was traveling in

a different direction than Earth.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUBTITLE: NASA and the European Space Agency`s Solar Orbiter spacecraft captured this unprecedented image of solar eruption.

The eruption, which occurred on February 15, extended millions of miles away from Earth into space.

These types of eruptions can disrupt technology reliant on satellites if directed towards Earth.

That can affect GPS, airlines, rockets and astronauts in space.

This imagery will allow space experts to gain a better understanding of the solar cycle.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: A little closer to home. When Mars and the Earth get near each other, they`re only about 34 million miles apart and NASA currently has a

rover that recently marked its first anniversary of when it landed on the Red Planet.

Perseverance has been slowly moving around, taking photos, collecting Martian rocks, testing out its drone helicopter and oxygen generator

technology. The estimated cost of this mission is more than $2.7 billion and it`s one of six active missions that NASA currently has on and around

the Red Planet.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REPORTER: Mars, its blood red color inspired the Romans to name it after their god of war. The ancient Egyptians called it the Red One. The Chinese,

Fire Star.

Now with NASA aiming to send humans to the planet in the 2030s, the question many have is why?

Mars has no known resources that would be valuable enough to send back to Earth. It`s bombarded by solar radiation and has dust storms that cover the

entire planet which raises the question why governments and private enterprise are spending billions of dollars on getting there.

Perhaps the most intriguing reason is the search for extraterrestrial life.
 

extraterrestrial [͵ɛkstrətəˋrɛstrɪəl] adj. 地球之外的；外星人的

In 1976, NASA`s Viking I became the first spacecraft to successfully land on mars. On board was apparatus designed to detect life. Chemical soil
 

apparatus [͵æpəˋretəs] n. 仪器；设备

tests were initially promising but doubts were raised and it has since been discounted that life was discovered by Viking I.
 

discount [ˋdɪskaʊnt] v. 不予考虑

Yet, it still supercharged the debate on whether there was life beyond our planet and what it means for our place in the universe. Conditions on Mars
 

supercharge [͵supɚˋtʃɑrdʒ] v. to increase the power of

indicate life could have existed. And in 2018, NASA`s Curiosity rover found organic matter like methane in rocks.

DR. JENNIFER EIGENBRODE, RESEARCH SCIENTIST, NASA: Organic molecules could be the food for life or they could be the product of life or maybe they`re

from something altogether different, such as geology or meteorites that were deposited into the lake.
 

meteorite [ˋmitɪər͵aɪt] n. 陨石

REPORTER: NASA`s Perseverance rover which touched down on the Red Planet February 2021 is actively testing for signs of life too. Perseverance rover

is just the latest in a series of missions to Mars that spans decades and each new step towards the Red Planet has brought the potential for a better

understanding of our own.

There may not be a lot on Mars, but it`s the unknown and the adventure of getting there that might just merit the price tag.
 

merit [ˋmɛrɪt] v. 值得

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: Bringing things right back down to Earth, one of the most active volcanoes on our planet is at it again. We`re talking about Mount Aetna the

highest active volcano in Europe, it does this a lot.

Aetna is located on the eastern part of the Italian island of Sicily. Shout out to Mr. McCarthy`s classes watching there. And the blast from Mount
 

Sicily [ˋsɪs!ɪ] n. 西西里岛（地中海之最大岛屿）

Aetna earlier this week sent a volcanic ash cloud about seven and a half miles into the air. This is according to Italy`s Institute of Geophysics

and Volcanology.

The lava fountain that shot from the mountain was visible in hues of red and crimson for several hours and the Catania Airport, which is located
 

crimson [ˋkrɪmzn] n. 深红色

about 20 miles away, had to shut down for a while because ash is bad news for airplane engines. It can melt inside them and cause catastrophic

damage.

Aetna`s eruptions can and have caused damage to nearby property but Italian officials don`t consider the volcano a direct threat to the people who live

in the region. It has been in the past though. In 1669, Aetna erupted violently over a period of four months. It destroyed nearby villages and

buried the western part of Catania and according to encyclopedia Britannica, a trench that workers there dug during the eruption might have

been the first ever human attempts to redirect the flow of lava.

(MUSIC)

AZUZ: One really sweet story rate a "10 out of 10" today. How many M&M`s can you stack one on top of the other?

For 22-year-old Brendan Kelby of Queensland, Australia, the answer is six. That might not sound like a lot but it is a world record. No one on the

planet has proven to Guinness that they can stack more than six. These have to be just regular milk chocolate M&M`s and they`ve got to stay stacked for

at least 10 seconds.

No, I don`t mean to be Ruth Baby, but some might Snicker, calling that record a dud. He milked for all it was Werther`s. But he`s an original

Starbursting with mounds of grand ideas that bring him good and plenty almond joy, as long as he keeps keep catching records and doesn`t get,

whatchamacallit, Butterfingers.

I`m Carl Azuz.

From the town of Keenesburg, Colorado, we`ve got the Rebels of Weld Central High School watching today. Thank you for your request on our YouTube

Channel. Please join us again on Friday.

END