Summer Days

The Phoenix lander snapped this picture of its surroundings on June 25, the first day of summer in the northern hemisphere of Mars. The lander, which is about a third of the way through its mission, has analyzed several soil samples, and is preparing to study a sample that appears to be mixed with water ice. One of the mission's goals was to determine if there is ice beneath the surface of Mars at far-northern latitudes, and scientists have already determined that the answer is yes. [NASA/JPL/Univ. Arizona/Texas A&M]