PIA10910: Ice on Mars - Now You See It


Ice on Mars - Now You See It

Caption:

Click here for high resolution tiff of PIA10910 Saturn's Long-lived Storm figure 1 Click here for high resolution tiff of PIA10910 Figure 2
Figure 1
High resolution tiff
Figure 2
High resolution tiff

This color image was acquired by the Surface Stereo Imager on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander on the 21st day of the mission, or Sol 20 (June 15, 2008).

It shows lumps of ice in the lower left corner of a trench nicknamed "Dodo-Goldilocks." These lumps later sublimated, a process similar to evaporation, over the course of four days.

In the lower left corner of the left image of figures 1 and 2, a group of lumps is visible. In the right images, the lumps have disappeared.

Background Info:

The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.

Photojournal Note: As planned, the Phoenix lander, which landed May 25, 2008 23:53 UTC, ended communications in November 2008, about six months after landing, when its solar panels ceased operating in the dark Martian winter.

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Mars
System
Target Type Planet
Mission Phoenix
Instrument Host Phoenix Lander
Host Type Lander
Instrument Solid-State Imaging (SSI)
Detector
Extra Keywords Color
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2008-06-23
Date in Caption 2008-06-15
Image Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10910
Identifier PIA10910