Sunday, June 01, 2008

It Really Looks Like Ice on Mars





Yesterday, Phoenix scientist Ray Arvidson said there may be ice directly under the Phoenix lander, exposed in the blast zone by the retrorockets used for Phoenix's soft landing. Yesterday's image showed a small portion of the exposed area that looks brighter and smoother than the surrounding soil. Today, Sol 5 for Phoenix on Mars, a new image shows a greater portion of the area under the lander. Scientists say the abundance of excavated smooth and level surfaces adds evidence to a hypothesis that the underlying material is an ice table covered by a thin blanket of soil.


Well, it's either ice, rock or the exposed tile floor from some ancient polar temple . . .

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I vote for polar temple, much more exciting than plain old ice!

Michael