A panorama photo shows the Curiosity Rover on Mars. (NASA/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS VIA GETTY IMAGES)
NASA WILL HOST A LIVE discussion Thursday to reveal the latest findings from the agency's Curiosity rover on Mars, an unusual event that has some speculating that the space agency is poised to reveal a significant new discovery.
According to the space agency, the discussion will take place Thursday at 2 p.m. EST, with the results embargoed by the journal Science until then.
The mission of the rover, which was launched from Florida on Nov. 26, 2011, and landed on Mars Aug. 6, 2012, was to find out if the Red Planet could ever have supported small life forms called microbes. That fact alone has heightened expectations for Thursday's announcement.
Described by NASA as the "largest and most capable rover ever sent to Mars," within the first eight months of its mission Curiosity found evidence of a past environment capable of supporting microbial life.
The live event will be hosted by Michelle Thaller, assistant director of science for communications in NASA's Planetary Science Division. Participants include Paul Mahaffy, director of the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center; Jen Eigenbrode, research scientist at Goddard; Chris Webster, senior research fellow in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and Ashwin Vasavada, a Mars Science Laboratory project scientist.
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