Today in History: Tunguska Event

One hundred years ago, a mysterious explosion in the Tunguska region in Western Siberia leveled an area of 2,000 square kilometers. Scientists speculate that Tunguska Event was caused by a meteor or comet impact - although no crater was found.

Send Your Name to the Moon

You can send your name to the Moon for posterity -- Planetary Society now accepts messages to be sent to the Earth's satellite, through the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which will be launched on November 24, 2008.

Deadline for submissions is June 27, 2008 and you can sign up at this site.

I already sent mine :)

Ice on Mars?

The Phoenix lander may have discovered ice on Mars, according to the official Mars Phoenix Twitter.

This Day in History: June 18, 1178

Five English monks in Canterbury may have observed a meteor impact on the surface of the moon, the explosion of which may have created the crater Giordano Bruno.

more here , via Wired.

Pluto Gets a New Class

The International Astronomical Union has decreed that Pluto, along with other planetoids that lie beyond Neptune, will now be classified as 'plutoids.'

Currently, only two heavenly bodies qualify for that designation, Pluto and Eris. Ceres, which is only smaller than Pluto, cannot be classified as such because it is located between Mars and Jupiter.

Notable Mars Mission Failures

OOBject has a gallery of notable Mars mission failures.

Above, Mars Polar Lander, which was lost on entry in 1999