Phoenix Touchdown!!!
Omg omg *squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee*
PHOENIX TOUCHDOWN!
*does the happy jig*
For those who don't know what Phoenix is, it's a landing probe sent to the higher latitudes of Mars, designed to dig up the Martian dirt to search for and analyze water-ice buried just a few cm under the surface. Unlike the Mars Exploration Rovers in 2004 and Pathfinder in 1998, Phoenix uses retro-rockets to slow its decent, which is infinitely harder and more risky than the bouncing airbags of its predecessors.
It must've been really great for the team considering the original of the Phoenix clone, Mars Polar Lander, just failed mysteriously just before touchdown. Heartiest congratulations to the Phoenix EDL team!
And so the EYECANDYYYY:
plus lots more on the main images page! http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/images/index.html