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I’ve spent a good part of today marvelling at this image (below) from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). I simply can’t take my eyes off it. It’s just stunning. Two nights ago NASA’s Mars Phoenix lander tore through the martian atmosphere on its way to the northern plains of Mars. As it unfurled its parachute it descended down to the surface a tremendous speeds. At the same time MRO was orbiting above relaying the signal from Phoenix to teams on Earth. Luckily its camera was also pointing in the direction of Phoenix and in one of the most remarkable, stunning [insert more superlatives here] images I have ever seen, the MRO team snapped this picture; Phoenix encased in its backshell, with parachute billowing above it, as it fell to the surface. You can even see the thin tethers that are connecting the parachute to the lander! Phil has a great video on his site here which sums up brilliantly what a lot of us are feeling about this image right now.

Phoenix with parachute on its way down to the surface.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.

The MRO team also released this image this evening, during the last press conference, (small version below) of Phoenix on the surface with its solar panels outstretched and gathering the sullen Arctic sunlight. Click on the image (below) to go to a larger labelled image, showing the position of the parachute and backshell. If this and all the other images, so far sent back, are a taster of things to come then this is going to be an incredible 90 days with Phoenix and its friends, at Mars.

Phoenix on the surface from MRO.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.

A few minutes ago NASA’s latest mission to Mars, Phoenix, successfully landed on the northern Arctic region of the red planet. The lander is now sitting almost exactly where it was expected to come down, on a slope which is tilting the lander by about a 0.25 degrees. Phoenix is also aligned beautifully east-west so should be perfectly positioned for catching the pale arctic sunlight with its solar panels.

I’ve been watching for a few hours and the last minutes of the descent, as Phoenix was travelling those last hundred or so metres, were truly exhilarating. A night I won’t forget in a while! It’s ten past one in the morning here in the UK so the first images won’t be in for another hour and a half.

We now have to wait for the solar panels to deploy but the hardest part is now over for Phoenix. Let’s look forward to 90 days (and hopefully more) of great images and even greater science.

Update: I’ve just added some of the first images which have just arrived (3:00am UK time).

Top image: The first horizon image from Phoenix
Lower image: One of Phoenix’s footpads on the martian surface.
Credits: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

The NASA Phoenix probe will come to the end of its journey to Mars tonight/tomorrow morning, landing on Mars at about 12:53am UK time. To keep up-to-date with how the probe is doing there are lots of blogs and live TV feeds for you to read and ‘tune’ into. NASA will have a live feed on NASA TV starting at 6pm EDT (or 11pm tonight if you’re in the UK).

The University of Arizona has a blog here, though they might be a bit to busy to blog during the landing phase! Emily at The Planetary Society has lots of info. here and will be at JPL for the landing and press briefings. Last but by no means least Chris and Doug Ellison have a dedicated Mars Live website about the Phoenix landing here.

I’ll also be updating my shiny new Twitter feed with updates on how Phoenix is doing throughout the night. Oh yes and if it hasn’t already got enough work to do, the Phoenix probe has its own Twitter feed here.

Episode number two of our podcast is out now. In this episode we have an interview with Stuart Clark about the Tunguska event that happened 100 years ago this June. It’s thought that a comet devastated large parts of Siberia when it exploded over a vast expanse of forest in 1908, felling 80 million trees! Stuart investigates the importance of this event and the mystery that surrounds it for our cover feature, in the magazine, this month. Lots more in the podcast too including my interview with Paul Money about June’s stargazing highlights, storms on Saturn and how to become and astronaut. Listen to it here.

Above: This light toned storm on Saturn has lighting 10,000 times more powerful than that seen on Earth. Find out about it on the podcast. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute