The Phoenix Mars Lander site has "a higher potential for life detection than any site previously visited on Mars. Moreover, the icy material that was sampled might periodically be capable of sustaining modern biological activity," according to a report on Space.com. The site summarized all the papers on the Phoenix Mars Landers given at last week's Lunar & Planetary Science Conference in Houston. [right, credit NASA/JPL/UA]
Phoenix science team co-investigator Carol Stoker of NASA's Ames Lab described 3 factors critical to habitability: "the presence of liquid water; the presence of a biologically available energy source; and the presence of the chemical building blocks of life in a biologically available form."