Swiss nano-microscope delivers first images recorded on Mars

For the first time ever, nanostructures have been measured on another planet. On July 9, the NASA "Phoenix" Mars Probe recorded images with nanometer resolution using its onboard Swiss-made atomic force microscope, and successfully transmitted these images back to Earth

The first images of the microscope — which was developed by the universities of Neuchâtel and Basel, and by Nanosurf — show the surface of a test grid with unprecedented detail.