NASA’s
Phoenix Mars Lander poses its robotic arm with a sample in the scoop on June
10, 2008.
The
image was taken looking west by the lander’s Surface Stereo Imager, just before
the robotic arm delivered the sample for observation by the optical microscope.
Phoenix has been digging several trenches to uncover potential ice layers
beneath the loose Martian soil, after
landing on the Red Planet in May.
Scientists
are fairly confident that Phoenix has managed to
discover ice, after several white crumbs from a digging operation four days
ago vanished. That suggested the white material was frozen water that vaporized
and not merely salt.
— NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona and SPACE.com
Staff
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University
of Arizona/Texas A&M University
Return each weekday for a new SPACE.com Image of the Day.
| 
