NASA Photos Confirm Crash Of Mars Lander

New pictures just out from NASA show the possible crash site of the Schiaparelli Mars lander that the European Space Agency lost contact with just a minute before its expected touchdown on the planet's surface. The theory is that something happened as the thrusters to slow the lander's descent to the surface were supposed to fire and the lander simply plummeted at high speed into the planet's surface. A new NASA photo shows a blackened area in the region where Schiaparelli was supposed to land that was previously unblemished, suggesting that the thruster propellant tanks remained full and exploded on impact.

The other part of this mission has, however, been successful. The Trace Gas Orbiter, which had launched Schiaparelli, has successfully entered Mars' orbit and will begin to search for microbial traces of life on Mars.