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The optical microscope on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander shows soil sprinkled from the lander's robot arm scoop onto a silicone substrate in this handout image released on June 13, 2008. This is the first sample collected and delivered for instrumental analysis onboard a planetary lander since NASA's Viking Mars missions of the 1970s
New observations from NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander provided the most magnified view ever seen of Martian soil, showing particles clumping together even at the smallest visible scale, the mission science team reported on Friday.

In the past two days, two instruments on the lander deck -- a microscope and a bake-and-sniff analyzer -- have begun inspecting soil samples delivered by the scoop on Phoenix's Robotic Arm.



View from the Surface Stereo Imager on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander shows the first impression dubbed Yeti and shaped like a wide footprint -- made on the Martian soil by the robotic arm scoop on Sol 6, the sixth Martian day of the mission, (May 31, 2008). Touching the ground is the first step toward scooping up soil and ice and delivering the samples to the lander's onboard experiments.
Images from Phoenix's Optical Microscope showed nearly 1,000 separate soil particles, down to size smaller than one-tenth the diameter of a human hair. At least four distinct minerals are seen, the team said.

"I'm absolutely gobsmacked that we're now looking at the soil of Mars at a resolution that has never been seen before," said TomPike of Imperial College London, who is a Phoenix co-investigator working on the lander's Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer.

The sample includes some larger, black, glassy particles as well as smaller reddish ones. "We may be looking at a history of the soil," said Pike. "It appears that original particles of volcanic glass have weathered down to smaller particles with higher concentration of iron."

The fine particles in the soil sample closely resemble particles of airborne dust examined earlier by the microscope.

"This is the first time since the Viking (Mars exploration) missions three decades ago that a sample is being studied inside an instrument on Mars," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith on Friday.

Stickiness of the soil at the Phoenix landing site has presented not only challenges for delivering samples but also scientific opportunities.

"Understanding the soil is a major goal of this mission and the soil is a bit different than we expected," Smith said. "There could be real discoveries to come as we analyze this soil with our various instruments. We have just the right instruments for the job."