Mars Rover 'Curiosity' Team Reportedly Will Reveal Major Discovery In December

[meeshrox]

47. They did find methane

a while ago (maybe weeks?) and decided to run another test. They figured that it could be trace amounts from the Earth air they brought with them in the instrumentation. They ran the test again and found no methane. But, this is separate from that event. From the NPR article:

"So why doesn't Grotzinger want to share his exciting news? The main reason is caution. Grotzinger and his team were almost stung once before. When SAM analyzed an air sample, it looked like there was methane in it, and at least here on Earth, some methane comes from living organisms.

But Grotzinger says they held up announcing the finding because they wanted to be sure they were measuring Martian air, and not air brought along from the rover's launchpad at Cape Canaveral.

"We knew from the very beginning that we had this risk of having brought air from Florida. And we needed to diminish it and then make the measurement again," he says. And when they made the measurement again, the signs of methane disappeared."

http://www.npr.org/2012/11/20/165513016/big-news-from-mars-rover-scientists-mum-for-now

This is something different and even more exciting!