A new Mars mission aims to uncover the mysteries of its moons | October 20, 2026

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[music] What's up, sunshine? I'm Ky Wire. This is CNN 10 on a tongue twister Tuesday, October 20th. Today's challenge is from our friends at Jamestown High School in North Dakota, who say this simple phrase is one of the most difficult. Irish wristwatch. Three times fast. Irish wristwatch. Irish wristwatch. Yeah. tongue officially twisted. Good luck

with that. Now, we have had some concerns by some of you reached out and said that I haven't done the 10 hands lately. Had a little hand surgery on a tendon apparently I did not need. Well, medical clearance granted. Rise up. Your 10 minutes of news starts now. I have missed these guys. We begin with an

unprecedented space mission that could help unravel some of the biggest mysteries of our lunar neighbor Mars. Japan's Martian Moons Exploration, or MMX, launched yesterday on a nearly five-year round trip to survey the red planet's two moons, Phobos and Deamos. The journey to Mars will take about 10 months. Once there, MMX will collect

soil samples from Phobos that scientists hope will explain the origin of the moons, something that has baffled scientists for decades. And here's where it gets really wild. If everything works out, those samples will come home in 2031. That would make MMX the first mission ever to bring samples back to Earth from the Martian system. NASA's

Perseverance rover has spent half a decade on the surface of Mars, collecting vital clues about Mars past, but concerns over the return mission's price tag led to its cancellation about 2 years ago. So, for now, Japan is trying to beat everyone home with a little piece of Phobos in the passenger seat. Here's a question for you. When