Scientists analyze deepest Mars soil yet

HOUSTON, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Scientists say they've begun analyzing soil from the deepest trench dug so far on the Martian arctic plains by the U.S. space agency's Phoenix Mars Lander.

On Sunday the lander's robotic arm sprinkled a small amount of the estimated 50 cubic centimeters of soil into the spacecraft's wet chemistry experiment. The soil had been scooped up from the informally named "Stone Soup" trench Saturday, the 95th day of the mission.

"This is pretty exciting stuff and we are anxious to find out what makes this deeper soil cloddier than the other samples," said Doug Ming, a Phoenix science team member from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The science team said it has also been studying a movie created from the lander's still pictures of the nearby Martian sky showing dramatic water ice clouds moving over the landing site during a 10-minute period Friday.

"The images were taken as part of a campaign to see clouds and track wind. These are clearly ice clouds," said Mark Lemmon, the lead scientist for the lander's surface stereo imager from Texas A&M University.

The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith of the University of Arizona.