May 23, 2013
LOS ANGELES (AP) - NASA's Phoenix spacecraft has discovered two
minerals on Mars that suggest water was there in the past.
Scientists reported Monday that the minerals - carbon carbonate
and sheet silicate - don't usually form without the presence of
liquid water.
Phoenix landed in the Martian arctic plains in May on a
three-month mission to study whether the environment could be
friendly to microbial life. One of its main goals is to probe
whether the ice ever melted.
NASA recently extended the mission through the end of the year,
depending on whether Phoenix can survive that long.
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