Hello everyone! You're listening to an all-new episode of News Bites!

I'm Paz Bueno…

And I'm Nancy Sun.

In today's news:

Training female reservists, a map of the ocean floor, and a star eats a planet.

Stay tuned for more on those stories, coming up next.

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台灣女性後備軍人 開始教育召集

Taiwan's Female Reservists Begin Training

Reservists are people who have military training (軍事訓練) but are not full-time soldiers (全職士兵).

They can be called to help the military (軍方) when needed.

And here in Taiwan, they've started training the first group of female reservists!

Before, only men had to take part in this training.

But now, women can volunteer (自願參加).

The women will train in a special place in Taoyuan.

They'll do the same training as men.

The government didn't say exactly how many women are in this first group.

But this year, they plan to train 220 female reservists in total.

As of 2021 (截至2021年), there were 8,915 women listed as reservists in Taiwan.

And 15% of Taiwan's 180,000 active military people (現役軍人) are women.

The training will take place in "strategic locations" (戰略地點).

That means the reservists will learn about the land and important buildings in the area they might have to protect.

This change will help the military be faster and better at protecting Taiwan during emergencies (緊急情況).

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四分之一的海底地形 製成地圖

A Quarter of the Ocean Floor Now Mapped

Did you know that only a small part of the ocean floor has been mapped (畫成地圖)?

But now, almost a quarter of the seabed (海床) has been mapped, thanks to a project called Seabed 2030.

Prince Albert II of Monaco (摩納哥的阿爾伯特二世親王) announced this big achievement (成就).

The project wants to map the whole ocean floor (整個海底地形) by the year 2030.

Mapping the ocean floor is important because it helps us make decisions about taking care of the ocean, managing resources, and protecting the environment.

製作海底地形圖很重要，因為它可以幫助我們照顧海洋、管理資源，保護環境。

In just six years, scientists have collected data of about 90 million square kilometers of the ocean floor.

在短短六年裡，科學家已經收集了九千萬平方公里的海底地形資料。

They've even discovered over 19,000 underwater volcanoes (海底火山)!

But there's still a lot of work to do.

Mapping the whole ocean floor is challenging because it's so big, deep, and expensive.

Seabed 2030 works with other organizations to train and support people who study the ocean.

They want to create a diverse and inclusive (多元包容) community of ocean mappers (海洋繪圖師).

This project shows how people can work together to achieve big goals for the benefit of everyone.

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被恆星吃掉的行星

A Planet Swallowed by a Star

Have you ever wondered what happens to planets when their stars run out of energy (能量耗盡)?

Scientists have just seen a planet being swallowed (吞下去) by its star for the first time!

This might happen to Earth one day, but don't worry - that's about five billion years away (50億年之後).

When a star runs out of energy, it turns into a red giant (紅巨星).

This means it gets really big and eats anything in its path, including planets!

Scientists had never seen a planet being swallowed while it was happening.

Dr. Kishalay De from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology accidentally discovered this event.

麻省理工學院的Kishalay De博士無意間發現了這個事件。

He was looking at data from a sky survey (天空測量) when he noticed a star that had become 100 times brighter (比以前明亮一百倍) in just 10 days.

This star is in our Milky Way galaxy (銀河系), about 12,000 light years (光年) away from Earth.

The researchers found out that the planet being swallowed was a gas giant, like Jupiter.

研究人員發現，被吃掉的行星是一顆類似木星的巨大氣體行星。

The star ate the planet over 100 days, and there was a bright explosion (爆炸) in the last 10 days when the planet was completely destroyed.

Dr. Morgan MacLeod from Harvard University said that most planets found outside our Solar System will eventually have the same fate.

在我們的太陽系以外發現的行星，大部分都會遭遇同樣的命運。

But when Earth's time comes, it won't be a big explosion.

That's because Earth is a rocky planet (岩石行星) and much smaller than a gas giant.

Scientists hope to see more planets being swallowed by their stars in the future.

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So, in today's News Bites:

Taiwan has started training the first group of female reservists.

This year, they plan to train 220 female reservists in total.

They can be called to help the military when needed.

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And,

Almost a quarter of the seabed has been mapped, thanks to a project called Seabed 2030.

The project wants to map the whole ocean floor by the year 2030.

This work is important because it helps us take care of the ocean, manage resources, and protect the environment.

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And,

Scientists have just seen a planet being swallowed by its star for the first time!

This star is in our Milky Way galaxy, about 12,000 light years away from Earth.

The star ate the planet over 100 days, and there was a bright explosion when the planet was completely destroyed.

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And that's today's episode of News Bites!