It's snowing, it's snowing. On Mars. Pioneer Lander sees snowflakes.

In a mindf***er of all mindf***ers, the Phoenix Mars Lander has detected snow falling from clouds over Mars, NASA scientists said Tuesday. Coupled with other recent discoveries on Mars, we now know that life on Mars is at least a remote possibility. Klaatu is possible.

According to NASA, a laser-driven instrument collecting data on the interaction between the atmosphere and surface of Mars detected snow from clouds two and a half miles above the Lander's landing site. The snow vaporized before reaching the ground. . .not so surprising considering the climate.

"Nothing like this view has ever been seen on Mars," said Jim Whiteway, of York University, Toronto, lead scientist for the Canadian-supplied Meteorological Station on Phoenix. "We'll be looking for signs that the snow may even reach the ground."

Spacecraft soil experiments also have provided startling proof that minerals and liquid water have interacted in Mars (processes that routinely occur on Earth).

The Phoenix Lander touched down in the Martian arctic on May 25 this year. The data suggests the presence of calcium carbonate (e.g., chalk), and particles of what might be clay. Carbonates and clays on Earth form only with water in the mix.

"We have found carbonate," said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA). "This points toward episodes of interaction with water in the past." "We are still collecting data and have lots of analysis ahead, but we are making good progress on the big questions we set out for ourselves," said a Phoenix investigator, Peter Smith of the University of Arizona.

"The Phoenix lander started digging trenches into Martian soil after touching down near the planet's north pole on May 25, revealing a white substance that scientists said was ice in June. Scientists now want to examine whether that ice ever thaws to assess whether the environment has been favorable for life, a key aim of the mission."

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Photograph transmitted Sunday from Phoenix probe shows possible life on Mars

A photograph of Phoenix shortly after landing - click to enlarge

NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander touched down safely Sunday on the Red Planet. The Mars probe will soon begin to sift through the icy soil for any signs of present or former life.

"We've passed the hardest part and we're breathing again,'' Mars Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein said in a statement released by NASA. Mars' rugged terrain and equipment failures have previously led to the failure of more than half of all Mars missions, including an ancestor of the Phoenix lander that was destroyed in 1999.

Phoenix sent a signal confirming it had safely landed in the northern polar region of Mars, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said on its website. The message took 15 minutes to travel to Earth from Mars at the speed of light.

As Phoenix began transmitting pictures to earth, scientists were shocked by the first images they received. Even before Phoenix began its probes in the soil, it broadcast back photographs that stunned the scientists on the Phoenix project at NASA. The photograph seems to show what earthlings might describe as a Yeti, or northwest-variety Sasquatch, striding across the Martian terrain. Scientists are at a loss to explain the photo, and anxiously await the next series of photographs, due to be transmitted later today. A website on the Internet, called Life on Mars obtained and posted one of the first photographs received by NASA, apparently leaked from the mission center. The photograph as it originally appeared today is located here.

click to enlarge (original 640 x 480 pixels)

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