Euros: We've Found Water On Mars

(CBS/AP)  Europe's Mars orbiter has confirmed the presence of frozen water on the Red Planet's surface for the first time, the European Space Agency said Friday.

"We have been tracking it on the south pole and there we have detected water, probably for the first time," agency scientist Jean-Pierre Bibring told a news conference at mission control in Darmstadt.

If Mars once had surface water, it had the potential to support life — though Allen Moorehouse, the project's manager of spacecraft operations, cautioned that it was too early to draw conclusions.

"You look at the picture, look at the fingerprint and say this is water ice," Moorehouse said. "This is the first time it's been detected on the ground. This is the first direct confirmation."

Two U.S. orbiters, Mars Global Surveyor and the 2001 Mars Odyssey, have also been circling the planet searching for indications of water in the Martian past.

In October, a team of scientists reported Odyssey had detected on the surface of Mars copious amounts of a mineral that's easily weathered away in the presence of water. That suggested Mars has been a dry wasteland.

Weeks later, a second team reported evidence to the contrary after Global Surveyor beamed back images that show features apparently created by the meandering flow of rivers.

The European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter is part of Europe's first mission to Mars. Mars Express hit orbit on Christmas Day and began transmitting its first data from the planet this month, starting with high-resolution pictures of the surface that captured in detail a huge Martian canyon.

The latest discovery was made by a device aboard the orbiter, a spectrometer, that is mapping the surface's mineral composition, Bibring said.

CBS News Correspondent Charlie D'Agata reports the landing craft the European mission deployed last month is still missing. This week, the U.S. Jet Propulsion Laboratory lost its ability to communicate with its Mars lander.