Life on Mars? New Mars Rover Curiosity Data ‘One for the History Books’

Could it be … life on Mars?

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has made a groundbreaking discovery, and while NASA remains mum on the revelation as it double-checks the data, an NPR interview with principal investigator John Grotzinger hints that the news will be huge:

This data is gonna be one for the history books. It’s looking really good.

The Curiosity captivated the world’s attention this summer when it successfully landed on the Red Planet in a triumph of technological achievement.

But the landing was just the beginning, as the Curiosity got to work on the most intriguing part of its mission: to search for signs of organic material — life. The rover has an advanced system to harness and analyze soil samples, called SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars Instrument). Results from SAM are streaming in and have scientist giddy with excitement, but NASA is keeping the info close to the chest until it can be verified.

Space.com reports that we’ll have to wait till next month to find out how “historic” the data really is:

Grotzinger confirmed to SPACE.com that the news will come out at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, which takes place Dec. 3-7 in San Francisco.