Mars Polar Lander still lost

Well, this is a bummer. Back on May 5, 2005, I reported that the Mars Polar Lander had been found. MPL was a NASA probe that crashed into Mars, presumably due to a combined hardware and software error (due to a glitch, the landing rockets may have switched off when it was still well above the surface, so it crashed instead of landing softly). In that May 5 entry in my blog, I showed where the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor may have spotted the doomed lander. I was careful to note the identification wasn't 100% positive... ... and, unfortunately, it turns out MPL was not seen after all. As reported by the team who designed, built, and operate the Mars Orbiting Camera^*, the image that sure looked like MPL before has changed significantly since then, indicating it's not the crashed remains of the probe. Here's the before and after picture ...