Historic pictures from Mars

A NASA spacecraft has sent back the first historic pictures of an unexplored region of Mars.

The Mars Phoenix lander touched down in the far north of the Red Planet, after a 680 million-km (423 million-mile) journey from Earth. The probe is equipped with a robotic arm to dig for water-ice thought to be buried beneath the surface.

It will begin examining the site for evidence of the building blocks of life in the next few days. A signal confirming the lander had reached the surface was received at 2353 GMT on 25 May (1953 EDT; 0053 BST on 26 May).

Engineers and scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California clapped and cheered when the landing signal came through. "Phoenix has landed - welcome to the northern plain of Mars," a flight controller announced. The final seven minutes of the probe's 10-month journey to Mars were regarded as the hardest part of the mission.

Mars is covered in …table salt

I was ready to start joking now about it, but then I remembered how many books I have read in my youth with life on Mars – not to mention Bowie’s song – and I think it is so weird. After going on for so many years, over a century, that there is no life on Mars now we are coming out with oceans, table salt and who knows what else in the next few years.

Oddly most of these science fiction books were talking about a doomed civilization in its edges. But always a glorious civilization, an artistic civilization avoiding the mistakes we are doing on earth. Most likely in the end scientists will find some microbes or minor organisms but is always fascinating the aspect of life in another planet, especially when this planet is the red planet!