NASA’s Mars Lander has finally made it – and is already sending messages back with incredible clarity. Will we find signs for former life on Mars?
(Credit: CNN)
Phoenix Lander began sending photos of the planet’s surface on the first day of its three-month mission “to taste and sniff the northern polar site’s soil and ice,” the space agency said.
The first pictures, which the lander began taking shortly after touching down near Mars’ north pole — the end of a 422 million-mile trek — showed a pattern of brown polygons as far as the camera could see.
“It’s surprisingly close to what we expected and that’s what surprises me most,” said Peter Smith, the mission’s principal investigator. “I expected a bigger surprise.”
Source: Mars lander sends photos from Red Planet’s arctic – CNN.com
When we first gazed at the moon through powerful telescopes, the moon appeared to be full of dirt and rocks. However, we were not convinced so we sent astronauts there. They brought back samples for scientists to analyze and it was confirmed that indeed, this was just dirt and rocks. However, we were not convinced so we went to the moon another dozen times or so just to really be sure it was real dirt and real rocks.
When we first gazed at Mars through powerful telescopes it appeared to be a mysterious planet. Our early flybys of this planet revealed a terrain full of dirt and rocks. However, we were not convinced so we sent Rover there. The little robotic vehicle traversed the topography sending back pictures and data and guess what? – more dirt and rocks. However, we were not convinced so we sent Phoenix there. It landed safely and started analyzing the soil and sending beautifully detailed images of a Martian landscape full of … dirt and rocks.
But wait, this is different. The Phoenix landed in the North Pole area in the hopes of discovering life. Its little sensors microscopically scrutinized the soil and made an amazing discovery. Mars is still full of dirt and rocks. But wait, this is different. The dirt has a pattern to it.