This image, one of the first captured by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, shows
flat ground strewn with tiny pebbles and marked by small-scale 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 contraction and expansion of surface
ice.
Phoenix touched down on the Red Planet at 4:53 p.m. Pacific Time (7:53
p.m. Eastern Time), May 25, 2008, in an arctic region called Vastitas
Borealis, at 68 degrees north latitude, 234 degrees east longitude.
This image was acquired at the Phoenix landing site by the Surface Stereo
Imager on day 1 of the mission on the surface of Mars, or Sol 0, after the
May 25, 2008, landing.
The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf
of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin
Space Systems, Denver.