Summer turned to autumn for the Phoenix Mars Lander on December
26, 2008. This image, taken on December 21 by the High
Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows the lander during the last
waning days of northern hemisphere summer. The image was
acquired at 3:31 pm Local Mars Time when the sun was 14-degrees
above the horizon. The image is false color, but appears bluish
due to atmospheric haze. Frost is not yet apparent here during
the middle afternoon. This is the first image targeted to the
lander since it ceased activity, and is one of a series of
images designed to monitor the Phoenix landing site for changes
over time due to atmospheric haze, deposition or removal of
dust, or formation of frost as winter approaches.