Phoenix Arrives On Mars

CBS News

Launched in August 2007, the Phoenix Mars Mission reached its critical landing phase on Sunday, May 25, 2008, as the lander sped through the Martian atmosphere at speeds of 12,000 mph, before braking for a powered landing. (Photo: NASA/JPL-CalTech/U. of Arizona)

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter used radar to map the insides of the north polar ice cap. Radio waves penetrated through the ice and bounced back at different times depending on the differing concentrations of sand and dust in the ice. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/U. of Rome/SwRI)



This image shows the vast plains of the northern polar region of Mars. The flat landscape is strewn with tiny pebbles and shows polygonal cracking, a pattern seen widely in Martian high latitudes — and also observed in permafrost terrains on Earth. The polygonal cracking is believed to have resulted from seasonal freezing and thawing of surface ice. (Photo: NASA/JPL-CalTech/U. of Arizona)



Mars is a cold desert planet with no liquid water on its surface. However, discoveries made by the Mars Odyssey Orbiter in 2002 show large amounts of subsurface water-ice in the northern arctic plains. (Photo: NASA/JPL-CalTech/U. of Arizona)

Phoenix uses hardware from a spacecraft built for a 2001 launch that was canceled in response to the loss of a similar spacecraft during a 1999 Mars landing attempt. Researchers who proposed the Phoenix mission in 2002 saw the unused spacecraft as a resource for pursuing a new science opportunity. (Photo: NASA/JPL-CalTech/U. of Arizona)

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n elderly woman looks on from inside a tent at a camp set up for earthquake evacuees in Mianyang, in southwest China's Sichuan province, Tuesday, May 20, 2008. Rescuers freed a 60-year-old woman Tuesday who was trapped for more than 195 hours after last week's earthquake and had survived by drinking rainwater, while the confirmed death toll rose to more than 40,000. (Photo: AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

raqi boys swim in a pond by a house destroyed in recent fighting in the Shiite enclave of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, May 20, 2004. An Iraqi military spokesman said Tuesday that Iraqi troops have moved into the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City to seize control. (Photo: AP Photo/Karim Kadim )

Firefighters try to extinguish a fire at the Philharmonic in Berlin, Tuesday, May 20, 2008. A fire broke out Tuesday at the Berlin Philharmonic's home, sending thick smoke pouring from the crest of the iconic downtown building as firefighters and musicians rushed to save instruments. (Photo: AP Photo/Miguel Villagran)

Displaced people wait for food outside a Methodist Church in Primrose, Germison, South Africa, Tuesday, May 20, 2008. Aid groups were struggling to feed and shelter thousands of immigrants who fled their shacks after violence erupted in South Africa. (Photo: AP Photo/Denis Farrell)

Tiny Garra rufa, or "doctor fish," nibble on the hands of a visitor as a treatment for clearer skin during a demonstration in a tank at "Beautyworld," a trade fair for beauty and spa industries, in Tokyo, Tuesday, May 20, 2008. (Photo: AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)


Alberto Contador of Spain pedals his way to second place in the 10th stage time trial from Pesaro to Urbino, of the Giro d'Italia cycling race, Tuesday May 20, 2008. Giovanni Visconti of Italy kept the overall lead for a fifth day, while Marzio Bruseghin won the 24.5-mile time trial in 56 minutes, 41 seconds. (Photo: AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati)