This image taken by the Optical Microscope on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander on Sol 17 (June 11, 2008) shows soil sprinkled from the lander's Robot Arm scoop onto a substrate that has been micromachined to produce different patterns of pegs and holes to capture the smallest particles in the Martian soil. The micromachined substrates are designed to tightly hold particles for imaging using the Atomic Force Microscope on Phoenix, which should be able to zoom in another 40 times beyond the magnification in this Optical Microscope image. For scale, each strip is 0.4 millimeter (0.016 inch) wide. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Imperial College London
