Phoenix Mars Lander - Day 5 in Living Color [1680x1050]

Click for my weblog article.

Colorized in Photoshop, it's possible this image shows ice in the two shiny patches under the lander!

From the press release:

Hard Substrate, Possibly Ice, Uncovered Under the Mars Lander
The Robotic Arm Camera on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander captured this image underneath the lander on the fifth Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Descent thrusters on the bottom of the lander are visible at the top of the image.

This view from the north side of the lander toward the southern leg shows smooth surfaces cleared from overlying soil by the rocket exhaust during landing. One exposed edge of the underlying material was seen in Sol 4 images, but the newer image reveals a greater extent of it. 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.

For more details:
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/images/press/20080531....