What Has NASA's Curiosity Found on Mars? We'll Find Out Today!

Update for 2 pm ET: NASA's Curiosity rover has found organic molecules, the building blocks of life, in ancient rocks on Mars, and discovered that methane on the Red Planet follows a seasonal cycle. Read our full story here!

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has apparently found something intriguing on Mars, and the space agency will unveil the discovery today (June 7). 

The space agency revealed few details about what will be announced today, but the "live discussion" will feature "new science results from NASA's Mars Curiosity rover," according to a NASA announcement. Why all the secrecy? "The results are embargoed by the journal Science until then," NASA wrote in the statement

That means NASA won't release any details until the news conference, which is scheduled for 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT). You can watch the Mars announcement live on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV. The space agency did reveal the list of scientists who will be discussing the Mars discovery. [See Curiosity's Greatest Mars Discoveries (So Far)]

According to NASA, Thursday's Mars science discussion will be hosted by Michelle Thaller, the assistant director of science for communications in the agency's Planetary Science Division. Presenters will include:

  • Paul Mahaffy, director of the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
  • Jen Eigenbrode, a research scientist at the Goddard center.
  • Chris Webster, a senior research fellow at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
  • Ashwin Vasavada, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory project scientist at JPL. (Mars Science Laboratory is the full name of the Curiosity rover's $2.5 billion mission.)

NASA will webcast Thursday's Curiosity Mars rover discussion on its NASA TV channel, as well as via Facebook Live, Twitch TV, Ustream, YouTube and Twitter/Periscope. You'll be able to ask the panelists questions via social media by tagging your posts with #askNASA.

The Curiosity rover has been exploring Mars since it landed in August 2012. The rover recently began drilling into the Martian surface for the first time in 18 months. It is steadily climbing Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-high (5 kilometers) mountain in the center of a region known as Gale Crater. 

Visit Space.com today for complete coverage of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity announcement. This story, originally posted Monday, June 4, has been updated with the timing of the news conference.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.