How NASA's Phoenix lander found water on Mars

Transcript

In 2008, NASA's Phoenix lander touched down in the northern polar region of Mars with a key mission: to study the history of water on the planet. Just days after landing, its robotic arm dug into the soil, creating a trench nicknamed 'Dodo-Goldilocks'. Scientists noticed clumps of bright material in the trench that vaporized over four days, strongly suggesting they were water ice. The final confirmation came on July 31, 2008. NASA announced that a soil sample, analyzed by the lander's Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer, a type of mass spectrometer, proved there was indeed water on Mars. This was a landmark discovery, providing the first direct evidence of water on another planet.