NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander has successfully landed on Mars on May 25 in an arctic region called Vastitas Borealis.
Below is an approximate-colour image taken shortly after landing by the spacecraft’s Surface Stereo Imager, which shows a polygonal pattern in the ground, similar in appearance to icy ground in the arctic regions of earth.
Image Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona
The mission aims to study the geologic history of water, the key to unlocking the story of past climate change; and to search for evidence of a habitable zone that may exist in the ice-soil boundary. Updates about the mission is available on NASA’s website.
was this picture taken close-up or from far?
NASA didn’t give the exact distance; I guess it’s taken close up (after landing).