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Phoenix Landing Ellipse over Long Island

May 24, 2008
This map compares the size of the area where NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander was expected to land, called the landing ellipse (red), to the size of Long Island, N.Y.

This map compares the size of the area where NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander is expected to land, called the landing ellipse (red), to the size of Long Island, N.Y.

Phoenix has a 99.9 percent probability of landing within the area denoted by its landing ellipse, a region in the northern plains of Mars centered at approximately 68 degrees north latitude, 233 degrees east longitude. The ellipse is about 70 kilometers (44 miles) long. Phoenix is most likely to land near the center of the ellipse, and least likely to land at its very edges.

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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