Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Max Planck Institute

Here’s the first sample scooped up from the Martian surface by the Phoenix Lander.  What’s interesting here is the white deposits…are they salts?….frozen water?….hmmmm.  I’m impatiently waiting to see.  More info about the Phoenix mission can be found here.

Picture Credit:  NASA/JPL/Univ. of Arizona

This desolate plain is one of the first views from the Mars Phoenix lander which touched down on Sunday May 25th.  Unlike the previous Mars Exploration Rovers which used gas-filled bags to cushion the landing, Phoenix used rockets to gently set down on the martian surface. It was crossed fingers and held breath by mission scientists until they received confirmation that Phoenix landed safely in the north polar region of Mars.  The mission is to search for traces of water, determine the hydrological history of the region and the possibility that the planet can support life.  The polar climate will be monitored through a sophisticated weather station developed in Canada.

There’s much to explore and I’m sure there’s a lot to see in the near future.

 Image Credit:  NASA JPL

There’s a notice floating around the internet right now describing an incredible event involving the planet Mars later this month.  Unfortunately, this information is wrong. 

In August of 2003, the planet Mars was in a particularily close alignment with Earth.  It does this every 26 months but in 2003 the red planet was marginally closer.  It appeared as an orange-red star and was quite bright.  At that time, someone took the information, made a mistake regarding the apparent size -no where near “Full Moon” proportions- and posted a well-meaning but inaccurate story about what people would see.  Every year since 2003 we see this notice.  It’s still wrong.

If you have a telescope and want to see Mars in its most favorable position in 2007 you will be well rewarded at Christmas time.  At its best, under modest magnification on your telescope you will be able to see detail on the surface of Mars and maybe even a polar ice cap.  The detail will be no where near what you see in the picture above but then again, that’s why we spend the money and send robotic probes there.  This picture by the Viking probe shows the deep canyon known as Vallis Marineras.  If this giant feature was here on Earth, it would stretch from one side of North America to the other.

Now that’s incredible.