After a nine=month journey across 680 kilometres of space, the U.S. probe named Phoenix made a perfect landing on Mars last night.

The spacecraft is equipped with a Canadian-built meteorogical station that should provide the first daily weather bulletins from Mars.

Thank you Sue for posting this information.

A NASA space probe has started to investigate whether Mars has the conditions necessary to support life.

Love,
Vicky

From BBC News:

A Nasa spacecraft has sent back historic first pictures of an unexplored region of Mars.

The Mars Phoenix lander touched down in the far north of the Red Planet, after a 680 million-km (423 million-mile) journey from Earth.

The probe is equipped with a robotic arm to dig for water-ice thought to be buried beneath the surface.

It will begin examining the site for evidence of the building blocks of life in the next few days.

A signal confirming the lander had reached the surface was received at 2353 GMT on 25 May (1953 EDT; 0053 BST on 26 May).

Engineers and scientists at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California clapped and cheered when the landing signal came through.

"Phoenix has landed - welcome to the northern plain of Mars," a flight controller announced.



Hubble Space Telescope

Thank you for the post and the information.
I heard it on the news. I wonder if there ever was life on Mars?

Sincerely,
Gisele

Thank you girls for your replies.
It is very exciting that Canada is involved in this project.

Meanwhile, Phoenix returned information that it was in good health after its first night on Mars, and the Phoenix team sent the spacecraft its to-do list for the day.

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/

THE MISSION
The University of Arizona is honored to be the first public university to lead a mission to Mars. The Phoenix Mars Mission, scheduled to land May 25, 2008, is the first in NASA's "Scout Program." Scouts are designed to be highly innovative and relatively low-cost complements to major missions being planned as part of the agency's Mars Exploration Program.

Dr Tom Pike, the scientist at Imperial College London who previously worked at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, led the British contribution to the mission.

He said: "We're not looking for the signatures of life at this stage, we're looking to see if the paper is there to write the signature on. What Phoenix could show is the potential for life, and that's a very interesting result on its own."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/first-picture...ds-safely-834379.htm

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/?gclid=CI3njYWOyZMCFQnIsgodnkhAhg


Satellite orbiting Mars imaged descending Phoenix
Still basking in the elation of a successful Mars landing, engineers with the Phoenix program unveiled a dramatic photo Monday showing the spacecraft descending to the martian surface under its parachute Sunday. The black-and-white photo, shot by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft as it sailed overhead, shows the inflated parachute and the backshell supporting Phoenix dangling below.

Thank you Vicky.

This is from todays Globe and Mail newspaper:

Although Mars is now a extremely dry, cold planet, there is evidence it may once have been much wetter and warmer.

The Mars Phoenix science team compiled this Martian weather report based on the spacecraft's first 18 hours of communications:

Low: -80 degrees C in the early morning

High: -30 degrees C in the sfternoon

Average pressure: 0.855kPa (less than 1/100 sea-level pressure on Earth-101.325 kPa)

Wind speed: NE 20 km/hr

Thank you for sharing this information.

I read about it in the newspapers. I am quite impressed that Canada is involved in this project.

May everything keep working well.

Love,
yoko

Thank you humans for this amazing post!

Phoenix has landed - welcome to the northern plain of Mars






We were wondering


Is there intelligent life on Earth?

Canadian supplied meteorological station detected falling snow yesterday on Mars.
The north polar ice cap of Mars grows and shrinks with the seasons, and some of the expansion may be due to snow falling during the winter months.

Mars is cold ans a seemingly barren planet, but scientists believe it eas once more like Earth, with water flowing over its surface.

From "The Globe and mail," Tuesday September 30, 2008.