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If you plant asparagus in Martian soil, will it grow?

That's the question perplexing scientists with the UA-led Phoenix Mars Mission, who are trying to comprehend contradictory results from a series of soil tests that show the red planet's surface to be both friendly and unfriendly to life.

The seeming paradox was announced just days after mission scientists confirmed the presence of water in Mars' northern arctic region, a key finding as officials try to determine whether the red planet could support life.

Chemistry test results announced on Monday show that soil recently collected for the lander's wet chemistry lab contained perchlorate, an oxidizing agent that's the primary ingredient for jet fuel.

The presence of perchlorate in the soil would be hazardous to plant life and undermine a preliminary hypothesis supported by test results from the same chemistry lab.

Scientists previously had characterized the soil near the lander as having a relatively low acidity and containing minerals necessary to grow several vegetables, including asparagus, while acknowledging that pressure and temperature on Mars would prohibit plant growth.

However, even the latest results come with a question mark, as a soil test conducted Sunday by another experiment — the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer, or TEGA — found no traces of perchlorate.

"This is surprising since an earlier TEGA measurement of surface materials was consistent with but not conclusive of the presence of perchlorate," UA lead scientist Peter Smith said in a press release.

Mission officials were working to examine all the possible reasons behind the latest results, including whether contamination during the spacecraft's preparation or journey to Mars could have played a role, the release said.

While contamination is possible, it's unlikely that the perchlorate came from Phoenix's landing thrusters, which used hydrazine. Once used, hydrazine decomposes into hydrogen, nitrogen and ammonia.

Mission scientists weren't available for comment on Monday. They plan to discuss the latest findings during a press conference today.

While the chemistry results from Phoenix's Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer, or MECA, have proved surprising, it's all part of the scientific process, Smith said.

"While we have not completed our process on these soil samples, we have very interesting intermediate results," he said in the release. "Initial MECA analysis suggested Earth-like soil. Further analysis has revealed un-Earth-like aspects of the soil chemistry."

Launched last summer, Phoenix traveled more than 420 million miles before it touched down on Mars during Memorial Day weekend. The day-to-day science research is being conducted by the UA, which became the first public university to lead a NASA mission to Mars.