NASA Discovers Ice in the Soil on Mars

Presence of water confirmed through baking; evidence of life is the next goal.

A robotic NASA explorer confirmed this week the presence of frozen water below the surface of Mars, scientists said Thursday.

Until the finding by the Phoenix spacecraft, evidence of ice in Mars' north pole region had been largely circumstantial.

"It's something that we've been waiting quite a while for," William Boynton of the University of Arizona said Thursday in Tucson.

Mars is a frigid desert planet with no liquid water on its surface. But in 2002, NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft detected evidence of subsurface ice in the arctic as it circled in orbit.

NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers also have found signs that the planet once was warm, wet and perhaps hospitable to primitive life.

But the Phoenix find is a physical first.

"We expected to find water in this landing site. That's why we came here," said Mars Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona.

Phoenix landed on Mars on May 25 on a 3-month hunt to determine whether the planet could support life.

After two failed attempts to deliver ice-rich soil to one of its eight lab ovens, researchers decided to collect pure soil instead. Surprisingly, the sample included a bit of ice, Boynton said.

Researchers were able to prove the soil had ice in it because it melted in the oven at 32 degrees -- the melting point of ice -- and released water molecules. Plans called for baking the soil at even higher temperatures next week to sniff for carbon-based compounds.

Michael Meyer, chief scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program, said the Mars Science Laboratory -- scheduled for 2009 -- will be equipped to detect life.

"So we're moving toward understanding whether or not there are places on Mars that could have been, or might still be, habitable," he said.

source: freep