This image provided by NASA Thursday, July 31, 2008 combines more than 400 images taken during the first several weeks after NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander arrived on Mars. The center of the image is the westward part of the scene. Trenches where Phoenix's robotic arm has been exposing subsurface material are visible in the right half of the image. The spacecraft's meteorology mast, topped by the telltale wind gauge, extends into the sky portion of the panorama  (Xinhua/AFP Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed vast Martian glaciers of water ice under protective blankets of rocky debris at much lower latitudes than any ice previously identified on Mars.

    Scientists analyzed data from the spacecraft's ground-penetrating radar and report in the Nov. 21 issue of the journal Science that buried glaciers extend for dozens of miles from the edges of mountains or cliffs.

    A layer of rocky debris blanketing the ice may have preserved the underground glaciers as remnants from an ice sheet that covered middle latitudes during a past ice age. This discovery is similar to massive ice glaciers that have been detected under rocky coverings in Antarctica.

This undated handout is a NASA illustration of one of its two six-wheeled rovers，Opportunity and Spirit, operating on the surface of Mars, searching for geological evidence about water in the bygone Martial environment. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    "Altogether, these glaciers almost certainly represent the largest reservoir of water ice on Mars that is not in the polar caps," said John Holt of University of Texas, who is lead author of the report. "Just one of the features we examined is three times larger than the city of Los Angeles and up to half a mile thick. And there are many more. In addition to their scientific value, they could be a source of water to support future exploration of Mars."

    The fact these features are in the same latitude bands, about 35 to 60 degrees in both hemispheres, points to a climate-driven mechanism for explaining how they got there, according to NASA geologist Jeffrey Plaut.

Phoenix lander gets close-up look at Mars dirt 

The optical microscope on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander shows soil sprinkled from the lander's robot arm scoop onto a silicone substrate in this handout image released on June 13, 2008. This is the first sample collected and delivered for instrumental analysis onboard a planetary lander since NASA's Viking Mars missions of the 1970s. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    WASHINGTON, June 13 (Xinhua) -- New observations from NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander provided the most magnified view ever seen of Martian soil, showing particles clumping together even at the smallest visible scale, the mission science team reported on Friday.

    In the past two days, two instruments on the lander deck -- a microscope and a bake-and-sniff analyzer -- have begun inspecting soil samples delivered by the scoop on Phoenix's Robotic Arm. Full story

    

View from the Surface Stereo Imager on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander shows the first impression dubbed Yeti and shaped like a wide footprint -- made on the Martian soil by the robotic arm scoop on Sol 6, the sixth Martian day of the mission, (May 31, 2008). Touching the ground is the first step toward scooping up soil and ice and delivering the samples to the lander's onboard experiments.  (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

NASA's Mars lander delivers 1st soil sample to microscope 　

    

A white layer visible where the Phoenix Lander robotic arm scooped away the martian soil. NASA said images received on Thursday confirmed that its Phoenix Mars lander has sprinkled a spoonful of Martian soil onto the sample wheel of the spacecraft’s robotic microscope station. (Xinhua/AFP Photo) Photo Gallery>>>