Phoenix lander discovers ice in Martian soil
Published: 8/1/08, 7:25 AM EDT
By ALICIA CHANG
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Phoenix spacecraft has tasted Martian water for the first time, scientists reported Thursday.
By melting icy soil in one of its lab instruments, the robot confirmed the presence of frozen water lurking below the Martian permafrost. Until now, evidence of ice in Mars' north pole region has been largely circumstantial.
In 2002, the orbiting Odyssey spacecraft spied what looked like a reservoir of buried ice. After Phoenix arrived, it found what looked like ice in a hard patch underneath its landing site and changes in a trench indicated some ice had turned to gas when exposed to the sun.
Scientists popped open champagne when they received confirmation Wednesday that the soil contained ice.
