Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University
Ice Cold Sunrise on MarsAugust 26, 2008 --- From the location of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, above the Martian arctic circle, the sun does not set during the peak of the Martian summer.This period of maximum solar energy is past -- on Sol 86, the 86th Martian day after the Phoenix landing, the sun fully set behind a slight rise to the north for about half an hour. This red-filter image taken by the lander's Surface Stereo Imager, shows the sun rising on the morning of sol 90, Aug. 25, 2008, the last day of the Phoenix nominal mission. The image was taken at 51 minutes past midnight local solar time during the slow sunrise that followed a 75 minute "night." The skylight in the image is light scattered off atmospheric dust particles and ice crystals. The setting sun does not mean the end of the mission. In late July, the Phoenix Mission was extended through September, rather than the 90-sol duration originally planned as the prime mission.        PSIP has left the building...by PSIPAugust 08, 2008 -Today was our last day in the Science Operation Center--and also the last day of Phoenix Student Interns at the SOC! We started our day with a group breakfast, then headed off to the Tucson Art ... Read More The Talk of the SOCby PSIPAugust 07, 2008 -Today's adventure found us at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) headquarters. Graduate students working in Tucson presented their summer's work, which was followed by a tour of ... Read More |
  Media UpdatePlease check the Phoenix Mars Mission web sites for mission updates this week. |
The Phoenix Mission is led by Principal Investigator Peter H. Smith of The University of Arizona, supported by a science team of CO-Is, with project management at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and development partnership with Lockheed Martin Space Systems. International contributions are provided by the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus Denmark; the Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. Additional information on Phoenix is online at here and here. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Additional information on NASA's Mars program is online at here.
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In remembrance of Diane Michelangeli
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