Phoenix Mars landing, and the WorldWide Telescope

You might have heard on the news today that NASA managed to land their Phoenix spacecraft on Mars and have started receiving pictures back from the planet's surface. Phoenix will carry out experiments for the next 6 months or so - the most exciting of which will be to search for traces of life under the surface where there may be water. You can read more about the mission here.

Also in the last few days, Microsoft have released their 'WorldWide Telescope'. This is a free bit of software that is kind of like Google Earth for space, and looks very cool indeed. It's described as a virtual telescope that lets you peer into the deepest, darkest corners of the universe - and there's lots of guided tours too, if that scares you! As always, check with the owner of the computer before downloading or installing.