Phoenix Discovered Ice on Mars - Scientists with the Phoenix Mars mission
stated yesterday that there certainly is ice on the Red Planet, reporting that
their robot digging tool has dug up portions of the white stuff. The spacecraft
revealed bright white fragments at the base of a trench while excavating near
Mars’ north pole, last Sunday.
Photos of the same sight sent back on Thursday
showed the white fragments disappeared convincing scientists that the act was
proof of ice that vaporized due to sun exposure. Or, as science men like to
explain, the pieces of ice evaporated into the dry atmosphere of the planet
thru a process called sublimation. To decide whether the Martian polar
environment could be hospitable, experts are using the shuttle’s equipment to
examine minerals in the soil and ice for clues of carbonates and sulphates,
which are formed by the action of liquid water.
Evidence of water failed to be produced by
the initial results coming from an experiment that baked a soil sample in one
of Phoenix's
test ovens. A data loss on the module this week stopped scientists from
receiving the results immediately after the last testing phase.
Water is a essential for life, but it's
just part of the equation. Scientists generally agree that organic carbon and
an energy source such as the sun are also considered necessary ingredients. Mars today is dry and dusty, relentlessly
bombarded by radiation and with no noticeable trace of H2O on its surface. But
carvings of channels and couloirs on the Martian surface indicate a history
involving water. Some scientists hypothesize that water may have evaporated
into the atmosphere and the rest was trapped under the surface in the form of
ice.
The first evidence of water on the Red
Planet was found in 2002 by the Odyssey orbiter, which revealed proof of a
frozen water reservoir located near the planet's poles.