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The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration confirmed yesterday the presence of water on Mars, raising the possibility that the Red Planet could support life.

NASA said on its Web homepage that its robotic space explorer Phoenix released water molecules by melting soil collected from Mars.

“We have water (on Mars). It’s the first time for us to touch and taste water on Mars,” said William Boynton of the University of Arizona who spearheaded the research.

NASA will extend the research period five weeks to the end of September to search for organisms on Martian soil.

The Phoenix landed on Mars in May and has carried out experiments since. Researchers detected water while boiling soil in the oven built in the Phoenix. When the temperature reached the melting point for ice, water molecules were released.