The Phoenix lander on Mars has touched the soil and is getting ready to do some digging
Images from beneath the lander show spots of what appear to be bright consolidated surfaces, possibly sub-surface ice exposed by the lander
more on the "Snow Queen" feature
and the arm has made the first gentle scoop to see what is down there...
Not down to ice yet at this spot...
They also did a rather nice panorama composite image around the lander
More like this
"This suggests a robust biological response. These analyses support the interpretation that the Viking LR experiment did detect extant microbial life on Mars." -Bianciardi, Miller, Straat and Levin
... well, not really, but ...
Three times smitten by my spear he pressed the dust
Its a footprint! Yetis!