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NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has taken its first-ever picture of a single particle of rusty Martian dust with one of its microscopes. The dust particles of dust were shown at a higher magnification than anything outside of Earth that has been imaged before. The rounded particle measured only about one micrometer, or one millionth of a meter, across.
"Taking this image required the highest resolution microscope operated off Earth and a specially designed device to hold the Martian dust," said Tom Pike, a Phoenix science team member from Imperial College London. "We always knew it was going to be technically very challenging to image particles this small."
The device that imaged the dust speck is called an atomic force microscope, which maps the shape of particles in three dimensions by scanning them with a sharp tip at the end of a spring. The atomic force microscope can detail the shapes of particles as small as about 100 nanometers. And this won't be the last dust particle that Phoenix will image. "After this first success, we're now working on building up a portrait gallery of the dust on Mars," Pike said.
Dust exists everywhere on Mars, coating the surface and giving it its rusty red color. Dust particles also color the Martian sky pink and feed storms that regularly envelope the planet. The ultra-fine dust is the medium that actively links gases in the Martian atmosphere to processes in Martian soil, so it is critically important to understanding Mars' environment, the researchers said.
The $420-million Phoenix mission is analyzing the dust and subsurface ice layers of Mars' arctic regions to look for signs of potential past habitability. The particle seen in the atomic force microscope image was part of a sample scooped by the robotic arm from the "Snow White" trench and delivered to Phoenix's microscope station in early July.

单选题 The dust particle on Mars is the smallest particle that has been imaged outside of Earth.

单选题 Using the same technology, we have also measured the size of particles on the moon and Jupiter.

单选题 Scientists use the highest resolution microscope to watch and record the image of Martian particles on earth.

单选题 Tom Pike said that they used to think it was no easy job to image such small particles.

单选题 An electronic device has been developed to measure the weight of certain Martian rocks.

单选题 After collecting the last Martian dust particle, the scientists have started to build up a portrait gallery of it.

单选题 The Phoenix's robotic arm collected the Martian dust particles for analysis on Mars.