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The controversial observation could be explained by the mission's previous discovery of perchlorate salts in the soil, since the salts can keep water liquid at sub-zero temperatures. Researchers say this antifreeze effect makes it possible for liquid water to be widespread just below the surface of Mars, but point out that even if it is there, it may be too salty to support life as we know it.

A few days after Phoenix landed on 25 May 2008, it sent back an image showing mysterious splotches of material attached to one of its legs. Strangely, the splotches grew in size over the next few weeks, and Phoenix scientists have been debating the origin of the objects ever since.

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Bathed in martian sunlight for four days, the white substance sublimated--i.e., it transformed from solid to gas without passing through the liquid state. This is how water behaves on Mars. Atmospheric pressure on the Red Planet is so low (1% that of Earth), it rarely allows H2O to exist in liquid form on the planet's surface; solid and gas are the only options. Some readers have asked, how do we know the white substance is not frozen CO2 (dry ice) instead of frozen water? Answer: Phoenix's landing site is too warm for dry ice. The average daily temperature is about -70 F while dry ice requires temperatures lower than about -109 F.

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The Mars rover Opportunity is working to free itself from a patch of loose soil it got stuck in on Monday. But rover scientists are hopeful it will escape relatively easily, since it got out of a similar predicament last year simply by spinning its wheels backwards. The rover was attempting to drive along a trough between the crests of ripples in the Martian soil when it got stuck. But it is not mired as deeply as it was in April 2005, when it was trapped for about five weeks on a 30-centimetre-high ripple of soil, nicknamed "Purgatory Dune".

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The thruster residue that might be on the Kromka plate is toxic. The residue can cause damage to the eyes, so spacewalking astronauts were supposed to put a plate from the experiment in a bag that snaps tightly shut like a clamshell. But the crew could not find that bag when they were collecting together their spacewalking gear on the station. So they may use another bag, close it with bungee cords and then put it inside several other bags.

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Space shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank appears to be safe to fly the next mission on 1 July, according to shuttle managers and engineers who completed a two-day review on Wednesday. NASA still expects some of the orange foam insulation to come off the external fuel tank during launch, but nothing as big as that shed during the last two shuttle flights.