Chunks of a bright material found in a trench, informally known as Dodo-Goldilocks, dug by the craft, have disappeared over four Martian days, suggesting they have vapourised.
The dice-sized chunks were unearthed on the 20th day of its stay on Mars.Four days later when the trench was snapped again, some of the chunks had disappeared.
The finds almost completely agree with the hypotheses that water is locked up in a permafrost layer close to the martian surface.
"It must be ice," said Dr Peter Smith, Phoenix's principal investigator, who is based at the University of Arizona.
There had been some question whether the white material was salt as I had mentioned in this post.The sublimation test is confirmation that the substance is ice because salt doesn't sublime!!
While evidence of ice on Mars has been gathered before, part of Phoenix's mission is to search out evidence to support the idea that the polar region of the planet could be habitable.
Further confirmation of the ice theory came from another trench, known as Snow White 2.
These little clumps completely disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence that it's ice --Dr Peter Smith
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