Water on Mars

June 20, 2008 – 8:04 am

Yesterday the Pheonix rover send us a picture of the same area it had taken 3 days ago. If you look at the animated picture to the right you can see the difference between them. Some how those small chunks of soil disappeared. Click image to see the difference.

“It must be ice,” said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. “These little clumps completely disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence that it’s ice. There had been some question whether the bright material was salt. Salt can’t do that. The mission is well ahead of schedule. We are making excellent progress toward full mission success”

This is not conclusive data as it could be explained by something else. Like wind or even martian removing the clumps. Who knows !?!

Found a video here of the workspace Pheonix is has to work with.