NASA'S Mars Phoenix excavated early Tuesday a new trench named Snow White in the "national park" area mission scientists have been saving for science.
The first scoop of Mars dirt from the new trench was excavated early Tuesday. Phoenix's robotic arm did not reach the hard white material, possibly ice, that it exposed previously in the first shallow trench it dug.
This was to be expected, scientists said, because the Snow White trench is near the middle of a polygonal-shaped region named Cheshire Cat where scientists think the white material would be buried under a thicker layer of the sand and dirt scientists call regolith.
Phoenix has been digging away since landing May 25 on Mars. So far it has found no liquid water in its first soil samples.
The latest trench is about three-quarters of an inch (2 centimeters) deep and about a foot (30 centimeters) long. The Phoenix team plans at least one more day of digging deeper.
In the future, scientists plan to dig another trench in the center of the Cheshire Cat polygon. They hope to study the soil structure of Snow White to decide how deep to collect samples in the next pit.
Phoenix's Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer oven instrument is still working on baking previously collected soil samples to look for volatile ingredients, such as water.
Source: Xinhua/Agencies
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