The Phoenix lander has arrived safely on the planet Mars, and the first pictures of the area where it has landed will arrive at Earth in just a few minutes now.
The mission of the Phoenix spacecraft is to collect samples of Martian soil and analyze them for signs of life, or signs that anything ever has been alive in the soil.
The landing spot of Phoenix is in the northern polar regions of Mars, where it is believed that ice is likely to have preserved organic compounds associated with life, if they ever existed on Mars.
The photograph you see here is the clearest picture so far of where Phoenix has landed – a photo taken from above. It’s most likely that Phoenix has landed near the center of the blue ellipse, which is over 35 kilometers long.
For more up-to-date information, check the Phoenix Mission News Site from NASA.
