Photos: Mars lander discovers white material

The robotic shovel aboard the Phoenix Mars Lander has dug into some white material just below the surface of the Red Planet. NASA scientists aren't exactly sure what it is--their best guess right now is that it's ice.

Meanwhile, the first Martian soil samples are heating up in one of eight tiny ovens aboard the Phoenix. The Phoenix will "sniff" the gases released to identify them.

Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University

Caption by Andy Smith