The robot arm of the Phoenix Mars Lander has been busy. After digging into the surface to reveal an ice layer underneath the soil, it drilled into the ice. That drilling produced flakes, which a scoop on the arm was able to pick up. A rasp on the arm was also able to scrape filings off the rock-hard ice.
All of the above supports the notion that the substance was in fact ice. That conclusion was further strengthened when the sample in the scoop changed shape after several hours exposure to the direct heat of the sun. On Earth, ice melts when exposed to heat. In the low atmospheric pressure of Mars, however, water in ice exposed to heat would change into a gas-- water vapor. That fits with what scientists observed.
The next step will be to deliver a sample of the ice to a lab onboard Phoenix for chemical analysis.
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