Welcome to Science Quest! 🚀 This week, we are looking into big UK energy updates, watching Halley’s comet debris light up the night sky, and blasting off to the moons of Mars on an epic robotic mission!

• ⛽ The Jackdaw Approval: Energy in the news! The UK Government has given the green light for drilling in the Jackdaw Gas field. Discover how engineers extract natural gas from deep beneath the North Sea seabed and how it powers homes across the country.

• ☄️ Night Sky Fireworks: The Orionid meteor shower lit up the night sky across the globe! Learn how tiny specks of dust left behind by the famous Halley’s Comet slam into Earth’s atmosphere at mind-boggling speeds to create glowing shooting stars.

• 🔴 Mission to the Martian Moons: Daniel Brown from NTU joins Dan to break down Japan’s ambitious MMX mission to Mars. Find out how this robotic spacecraft plans to land on Phobos, scoop up alien space dirt, and fly it all the way back to Earth!

• ⚛️ Heavy Metal Chemistry: One listener asks an awesome science question: what is the absolute heaviest metal on the periodic table? We look at Osmium and super-heavy lab-made elements like Oganesson!

• 🍃 Tree-Devouring Pests: Ecologist Helen Roy answers Ari’s question: why do spotted lanternflies eat trees? Discover how these invasive sap-suckers use straw-like mouthparts to drink plant sugars and why scientists are trying to stop them.

• 🕳️ Dangerous Dan: Meet the Star-Nosed Mole! Living underground in pitch-black tunnels, this bizarre creature sports 22 fleshy, pink tentacles surrounding its snout, allowing it to detect and gobble up prey in less than a quarter of a second!

• 🧠 Brain Box: World-renowned paleontologist Paul Barrett from the Natural History Museum steps into the Brain Box to explore fossil discoveries, T. Rex relatives, and how prehistoric monsters ruled the planet.

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