Mission scientists of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander reported on Thursday that an instrument aboard the spacecraft have identified water in a soil sample.

A full circle panoramic view of Mars taken by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander is shown in this undated handout photo released to Reuters July 31, 2008. NASA scientists said on Thursday they had definitive proof that water exists on Mars after further tests on ice found on the planet in June by the Phoenix Mars Lander. [Xinhua/Reuters]

The lander's robotic arm delivered the sample Wednesday to an instrument that identifies vapors produced by the heating of samples.

"We have water," said William Boynton of University of Arizona in a statement released by NASA on Thursday. Boynton is the lead scientist for the instrument, Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA.

"We've seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted."