mars awaits

This Sunday, Mars will meet another robot from earth when the probe named Phoenix lands far north within the planet’s arctic region. With laser radars, small ovens, and sensors powered by solar panels, Phoenix will be testing to see if the ice discovered there in 2002 was ever liquid. After all, “This is where the history of life is preserved in its purest form — organic molecules and cellular bacterial microbes and so forth.”

Click here to read other quotes from the leader of the Phoenix expedition, and more about news that’s always getting buried beneath that of American Idol.