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Phoenix confirms Water on Planet Mars
By Assam on August 2, 2008
On July 30, 2008, NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander confirmed that planet Mars has water, at least in the form of ice. The Phoenix lander’s robotic arm delivered the sample on Wednesday, to an instrument that identifies vapors produced by the heating of samples. And the result was positive to confirm that panet Mars contains water.
Phoenix Lander
After two failed attempts to deliver ice-rich soil to one of Phoenix’s eight ovens, researchers decided to collect pure soil instead. And surprisingly, the sample that came from a trench approximately 2 inches deep, was mixed with a little bit of ice. When the scientists heated it, a bit of the sample evaporated around the usual freezing point of water. Special sensors also tested the chemical makeup of the vapor and found the familiar combination of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. So, ultimately it is confirmed that Mars contains water.
The latest scientific finding is the first piece of good news for Phoenix Mars Lander mission. So, NASA announced that it would extend the mission for an extra five weeks until the end of September. The Phoenix mission is led by Smith at the University of Arizona with project management at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and development partnership at Lockheed Martin in Denver. International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus in Denmark; the Max Planck Institute in Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.
Planet Mars
Phoenix landed on May 25 and ever since it has been studying soil of Mars with a chemistry lab, TEGA, a microscope, a conductivity probe and special cameras. Besides confirming the 2002 finding from orbit of water ice near the surface and deciphering the newly observed stickiness, the Phoenix mission team is trying to determine whether the water ice ever thaws enough to be available for biology and if carbon-containing chemicals and other raw materials for life are present. We hope that, soon we will get some more interesting information about the red planet.
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