The hot news in astronomy is that a new planet has been discovered beyond Pluto, officially called 2003 EL61 for now, and nicknamed "Santa."  This planet also has a small moon.  But "Santa" is not a moon;  it has its own orbit around the sun (which you can view and animate here), one that is more elliptical (oval-shaped) than Pluto's.  This might explain why it took so much longer to find it.  Astronomers are still debating the size of the new planet:  It may a small and bright, or large and dim.

Meanwhile, the ESA people are jumping for joy with the discovery of what appears to be water ice inside a crater on Mars.  The image shows a sort of mound of bright material that scientists say is not frozen carbon dioxide, yet is not 100% water either.  I wonder if there is any way to tell whether the ice came from whatever foreign object caused the crater, or not.

Plus, spacecraft Cassini's latest observations of Saturn moon Enceladus are, as usual, unexpected and unique, showing yet again how poorly evolutionary models are predicting the make-up of our solar system.  Dr. Peter Thomas, one of the Enceladus imaging-team members, said "A landscape littered with building-sized blocks [of ice] was not expected." 

[In other news, an Ecuadorian bird called a manakin makes the fastest known limb movements of any animal with a backbone:  The male beats its wings against its back 106 times a second in a beautiful courting song.  It is said to sound like a violin note.]