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File:PIA10741 Possible Ice Below Phoenix.jpg

PIA10741_Possible_Ice_Below_Phoenix.jpg ‎(512 × 256 pixels, file size: 33 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Summary

Description 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.

The bright-looking surface material in the centre, where the image is partly overexposed, may not be inherently brighter than the foreground material in shadow.

The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.
Date 30 May 2008
Source http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10741
Author NASA/Jet Propulsion Lab-Caltech/University of Arizona/Max Planck Institute
Permission
( Reusing this file)

NASA public domain image

Licensing

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