May 28 2002
From The Space Library
Using data gathered by NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft, scientists discovered direct evidence of water ice on Mars. NASA scientists were using the Odyssey to measure and map soils in Mars's polar regions when the spacecraft's gamma-ray spectrometer detected hydrogen, indicating the presence of substantial, subsurface water ice in the upper meter of soil in a region surrounding Mars's south pole. Scientists had already suspected that Mars possessed large quantities of water near its surface, but the Odyssey's new information was the first direct evidence supporting this hypothesis. Scientists also found that large areas in Mars's low and middle latitudes contained “slightly enhanced amounts of hydrogen.” However, their report did not indicate whether the hydrogen was in the form of water ice or chemically bound to minerals in the soil. (NASA, “Odyssey Finds Water Ice in Abundance Under Mars's Surface,” news release 02-99, 28 May 2002.)
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