New find of the "Phoenix" apparatus, which is now on the surface of the Red Planet
For scientists, the cherished question: "Is there life on Mars?" - has long been reduced to something else: "Is there water on the Red Planet?" The presence of the latter is a necessary condition for the existence of life. This task was to be answered by the American research probe "Phoenix", which landed on Mars at the end of May. Unlike two Mars rovers (again belonging to NASA) traveling on this planet, Phoenix will stand in one place for all the three months of work allotted to it. With his "scoop-hands", he takes soil from different depths and examines it using built-in analyzers, trying to detect water.
Scientists were alerted when on June 15, on the 20th day of its stay on the Red Planet, "Phoenix" dug another groove in the Martian dust with its manipulator, and experts found some solid white blotches in the images from the bottom. Ice finally discovered - frozen water? Or is it just some kind of white mineral?
Phoenix received a new mission. For several days he had to shoot the bottom of the anomalous trench, which scientists nicknamed Snow White, from the same angle. And it turned out that the white blotches are decreasing in size. And the smallest ones disappeared altogether - the mysterious substance began to melt. Therefore, according to researchers from NASA, "Phoenix" came across ice. Moreover, it is precisely on water ice, and not on ice made of carbon dioxide, known as "dry": it would evaporate much faster. And this means that under the upper layer of the Red Planet there are large reserves of frozen water, in which, it is possible, bacteria and other microorganisms can live.
Now "Phoenix" will study soil samples from the bottom of Snow White under a microscope. What if you can see "brothers in mind"?
