Scientists: Signs point to Mars ice
Images from NASA's Phoenix lander released late yesterday appear to confirm the presence of buried ice on Mars, the first evidence that the spacecraft landed in the right spot last month to find water on the Red Planet.
Pictures taken of a trench dug earlier in the week by the lander's nearly 8-foot-long robotic arm showed that eight small, whitish chunks of material at the base of the trench had disappeared by yesterday.
If those chunks had been some form of salt, as some scientists believed, they would not have evaporated, said Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, the lead scientist for the $420-million mission.
"It must be ice," Smith said. "These little clumps completely disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence that it's ice. This has been a wonderful day."
Phoenix parachuted to the Martian north pole May 25 with the primary goal of finding water, which is crucial for determining whether the planet ever was, or still might be, habitable for rudimentary forms of life.
Water is also a key element of NASA's long-range dreams to send humans to the planet.
Smith and the other members of the team are confident they've found ice, but the final confirmation won't come until they transport the material into one of eight tiny ovens attached to the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer and cook it to see what it's made of.
