Phoenix Finds Ice
...maybe. It sure likes like ice to me:
It's pretty cool if the spacecraft we were hoping would find ice landed right on a patch. That wouldn't necessarily indicate anything about the abundance of the stuff on the Mars, but then again it can't be a bad sign.
NASA says they need to do some tests -- take a color photo, for example -- in order to confirm whether this is really ice. And even if it is, it might be dry ice: CO2 rather than H2O. The real test will be involve chipping some off and seeing how it mixes with a beverage.
Or something like that. I'm not sure exactly what the test is. Anyhow, stay tuned.
