The planet Mars conjures images of red rocks and arid, dusty plains, but as NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander showed last year, it snows on Mars.
The stationary robot observed ice crystals falling to the martian surface near the end of its 5-month mission in the arctic Vastitas Borealis plains last year. Today, scientists detail this finding and others in a set of four papers in the journal Science. The research could help shed light on the past and present action of water on the martian surface and characterize the potential habitability of the red planet. |