Resembling a giant bloodshot eyeball, Mars's south pole from this view shows what is likely an enormous patch of previously undetected water ice (blue). Scientists unveiled this and other discoveries--the first from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft--at a March 1 press conference.

The craft's gamma-ray sensor, neutron spectrometer, and other instruments measured large amounts of hydrogen over the planet's south pole. The hydrogen, NASA says, is probably attached to oxygen in the form of a field of frozen water hundreds of miles across. Scientists have speculated that there might be large quantities of water ice buried just below the surface of the martian pole, and this new finding lends support to that idea. However, additional data collection and analysis lie in store for NASA scientists before they make a definite pronouncement, they said.

The Mars Odyssey began orbiting the planet last month, and for the next two-and-a-half years it will be studying Mars's mineralogy in unprecedented detail, as well as the planet's radiation environment and temperature.

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