Ice Beneath

Image source with more information
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/
University of Arizona/Max Planck Institute

"We were expecting to find ice within two to six inches of the surface," said Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, principal investigator for Phoenix. "The thrusters have excavated two to six inches and, sure enough, we see something that looks like ice. It's not impossible that it's something else, but our leading interpretation is ice."

Camera on Arm Looks Beneath NASA Mars Lander

Of course, we've seen ice on Mars before, from orbit, but we've never before been within (robotic) arm's length of the stuff. Any worries that the immobile Phoenix lander might be sitting on the wrong spot have surely been allayed a little, though it's not until we actually start digging that we'll know for sure.