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Ice on Mars -- Now it's Gone

June 23, 2008
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander shows the trench, called 'Dodo-Goldilocks,' lacking lumps of ice seen previously. The ice had sublimated, a process similar to evaporation, over the course of four days.

Click here for high resolution tiff of PIA10910 Saturn's Long-lived Storm figure 1Click 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 25th day of the mission, or Sol 24 (June 19, 2008).

The trench, called "Dodo-Goldilocks," is lacking lumps of ice seen previously in the lower left corner. The ice 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.

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.

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