NASA May Have Found Ice on Mars

One minute it was there, the next it wasn't.  What happened?  Well, NASA scientists think that those mysterious dice-size crumbs of bright material might have been ice.  And ice melts.

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander took some photos five days ago of bright unidentified clumps.  When they went back to take another look, the clumps were gone.  Scientists think that the material might have been frozen water that vaporized after digging exposed it to the surface.

"It must be ice," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. "These little clumps completely disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence that it's ice. There had been some question whether the bright material was salt. Salt can't do that."

Ice on Mars means water on Mars.  And water on Mars is a big deal.

Click here for pictures released by NASA

Here is additional information released by NASA:

Disappearing Ice

These images were acquired by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's Surface Stereo Imager on the 21st and 25th days of the mission, or Sols 20 and 24 (June 15 and 18, 2008).

These images show sublimation of ice in the trench informally called "Dodo-Goldilocks" over the course of four days.

In the lower left corner, lumps disappear, similar to the process of evaporation.

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.