Scientists believe Mars Lander finds ice

Scietists leading NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander mission believe they have found ice just below the Martian surface. The breakthrough was reported today by Peter Smith, the principal investigator from The University of Arizona

Smith said that while the Phoenix lander was digging into the surface, bright chunks of material were photographed, but disappeared slowly during the past four days. Given the exposure to Mars' atmosphere, Smith and other Phoenix Mission scientists think the lander unearthed ice that eventually melted.

"It must be ice," Smith said. "These little clumps completely disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence that it's ice. There had been some question whether the bright material was salt. Salt can't do that."

The material in question was approximately the size of a dime and found inside the trench the Phoenix lander had began digging four days ago. The trench has been informally named "Dodo-Goldilocks," by mission scientists.

The Phoenix lander also made contact with another hard, potentially icy layer, while digging in the Martian soil. This trench, named "Snow White 2," displayed the same sediment layer as its predicessor, "Snow White 1," said Ray Arvidson, Washington University in St. Lois co-investigator for the robotic arm.

"We have dug a trench and uncovered a hard layer at the same depth as the ice layer in our other trench," he said.