
What you are seing above this words is what might become Phoenix’s landing site.
The location of the original image, which you may see here, takes into the heart of the mission’s landing ellipse center.
Phoenix will find herself at a martian region named Vastitas Borealis (Northern Plain, or Northern Waste), that’s where we can find “Green Valley”, an informal name given to the lander’s destination which has, forming its sides, a group of low hills called Scandia Colles.
You can have a better idea of what we are talking about by checking this PDF where the landing site is at the left edge, about 10 o'clock (thanks Phil!).
To know more about where we are headed and how will we reach it, visit Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung (MPS) site.
I have grabbed the referred original image and cropped into 6 pieces (click it to enlarge it...) that permits us to have an idea about what Phoenix will be facing down there.
Recovering PI Smith’s ideas from his participation at spacEurope’s Live Q’n’A, Phoenix’s landing site has been well imaged from space by the HiRISE camera, a 0.5 m telescope with resolution of rocks 1 - 1.5 m or greater. The team has found a safe site with few boulders to insure a safe landing. However, it will not be free of cobbles and smaller pebbles. Peter Smith revealed his curiosity about to see how these eventual stones have weathered over time and whether they are aligned with the polygonal boundaries that we can see in the images I have posted above.
Still following Smith’s thoughts, the site is a shallow valley and has undergone erosion which may leave signatures, there are few slopes in the neighborhood and the horizon should look extremely flat, so...no hills. However, this site is far from boring. It is close to a 10 km crater and it is probable that Phoenix will stand on the ejecta blanket containing material brought to the surface from depth, the lander will also step on the slope of a large volcano, Alba Patera, and therefore may encounter ash blown from the interior. Finally, the site is a shallow valley and has undergone erosion which may leave signatures.
One thing is for sure, for more efforts we develop we won’t be able to get there before Phoenix do so, cross your fingers, hold your breath, count the days...there are only 31 left.

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