Phoenix Finds Water In Form of Ice on Mars, Search For Life on Mars Begins

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According to exciting news just hitting the wires NASA’s Phoenix has purportedly located what scientists are certain is ice just under the surface of Mars which appears to have been discovered thanks to the Phoenix Lander’s twelve retrorockets – used to slow the descent of the Phoenix prior to touchdown on the Martian surface – blowing away several inches of the surface to reveal what is believed to be an extended table of ice.

Image of Hard Substrate, Possibly Ice, Uncovered Under the Mars Lander

(Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech//University of Arizona/Max Planck Institute)

Should the ‘shiny and smooth’ material prove to be ice (and the programme’s scientists are convinced that the material unearthed is exactly this) then this would serve as a strong indicator that liquid water – which is essential for life as we know it – could have existed many millions of years ago when Mars was warmer which, in turn, could suggest that Mars may once have sustained a habitable environment where life could have existed.

“Ice is a great preserver,” Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson said during a conference call with reporters, “and it’s one of the building blocks of life.” Though whether the material found, assuming that it is ice, will harvest any evidence of past life on Mars once examined by Phoenix remains open to speculation. With this in mind, Phoenix will begin examining the ice this week, with samples being analysed onboard the craft to access the salinity and chemistry of the Martian ice.

Will Phoenix make the discovery that life did indeed exist on Mars at some point in the past, as many scientists have long since speculated? Time will tell, but there’s no doubt that the Phoenix could be on the brink of what would undoubtedly be one of, if not the, most major scientific discoveries of all time (just a shame that Arthur C. Clarke isn’t around to hear the news should some indicator be found).

NASA [via SFGate]