During its five-month mission on Mars last year the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) Phoenix Mars Lander found evidence that liquid water existed at the spacecraft's landing site, some Phoenix team members said. The new but controversial conclusion came from observations of a set of “little globules” attached to struts on the lander's legs that were photographed by Phoenix's robotic arm camera during the mission. The globules were seen to apparently move and grow between photos, and 22 members of the Phoenix team, including chief investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, believe that the globules might have been liquid water that was splashed up onto the spacecraft as it landed. Not all of the Phoenix team members agreed with the conclusion, which will be presented in a paper later this month at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas. “It's a bit controversial,” Smith told Space.com. But “obviously, [the globules] came from somewhere. They weren't there when we launched.” Phoenix landed in the Martian arctic in late May of last year. The lander's mission was to search for signs of potential biology on Mars, or specifically, signs that water ice just below the surface was once liquid. Water is key to all forms of life that we know, and the discovery of liquid water would suggest a greater chance for biology on Mars.
