NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander managed to send back to Earth the highest-resolution images ever to be taken of the compounds of another’s planet soil. The photos are ten times better than any other previous attempt and according to US space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, these are the first to show the detailed diversity of mineralogy and geology on Mars.

For now, the soil results are being checked and double-checked in order to safely rule out any sort of contamination from the Lander and only then will the reports be made public sometime during next week’s mission updates.

So far, the white layer beneath the dust has not yet been identified and the speculations offer several answers such as the possibility of being ice, salt or a mineral such as quartz.

Phoenix’s mission is monitored by more than 30 engineers and programmers at NASA who handle more than 1,000 lines of software codes every day in order to ensure the best possible efficiency of operations.

The mission involves answering the question whether the soil samples contain traces of organic compounds and carbon-based elements in order to determine if it was ever possible for Mars to have supported primitive life. Also, scientists are very interested about the information that can be gathered on climate change.

The mission, which will stretch over 90 Martian days, or 92 Earth days, started at a site in the north region of the planet, established at 68 degrees north latitude, 233 degrees east longitude, at temperatures of minus 73 C to minus 33 C (minus 100 F to minus 28 F).