It's Official: Water-Ice on Mars

It's official water-ice is on Mars! Check out the Emily Lakdawalla's blog on the Planetary Society for a great article!

Is this Ice?

Does this look like ice to you? It's the new scoop of dirt from the Phoenix lander. This very well could be the first color ice picture from the Red Planet. Check out the white substance to the right; definitely looks like ice chips to me, but there is a possibility it is salt.

Exciting times for Mars enthusiasts indeed! I am glued to my computer and NASA TV non-stop around 2-3pm, waiting for the latest news updates.

Come on... let's find a Martian microbe... now THAT would make the 11 o'clock news!

We've Struck Ice (we think)!!!

What you are looking at researchers are fairly certain is a layer of ice excavated by the blast of Phoenix's retrorockets.

The possibility still exists that it's just rock, however, I doubt geologists would make that mistake, even with a black and white photograph. I was really hoping for a full color photograph letting us know once and for all if this is what we came to find, or if it's just a layer of rock. Based on the smoothness and the behavior of the soil around it, NASA's putting their money on ice.

The way we look at Mars just changed. Forever.