NASA has released another image showing the Phoenix Mars Lander may have landed on ice. This image is better evidence than the one I posted on Saturday.
According to NASA, 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:
The bright-looking surface material in the center, where the image is partly overexposed may not be inherently brighter than the foreground material in shadow.
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.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech//University of Arizona/Max Planck Institute
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