Gallery: Images of Mars from the Curiosity rover
The Curiosity rover may have found organic compounds on Mars, Jet Propulsion Laboratory director Charles Elachi said in Rome on Wednesday, according to multiple reports.
"Perhaps Curiosity has found simple organic molecules," Elachi said at La Sapienza University, according to La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno. "It's preliminary data that must be checked (on) organic, not biological, molecules."
The statement figures to set off a new round of speculation and excitement about the possibility of life on Mars.
Elachi, however, made clear that Curiosity cannot find life.
The rover's sample-analysis instruments can detect organic compounds like methane, which contain carbon, the basic building block for life.
Even if Curiosity finds methane, it has no way to confirm it came from a biological organism. The compound also forms through chemical reactions and has been found on meteorites.
Earlier this month, Curiosity project scientist John Grotzinger told NPR that recent data from the sample analysis would be "one for the history books."
It caused a furor of speculation about the mystery news, with most educated guesses pointing to organic compounds.
However, JPL has since said that Grotzinger's statement was meant to describe the mission as a whole, not a specific finding.
More details could emerge Monday at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco, where a news conference about Curiosity is scheduled.
"There's not going to be any earth-shaking news on Monday," JPL spokesman Guy Webster said.
Since its celebrated landing in Mars' Gale Crater in August for a two-year mission, Curiosity has already found that an ancient streambed once rushed through the area, and found that properly equipped astronauts could withstand the radiation on the planet.
The soil sample the rover collected for its first sample-analysis test wasn't expected to come up with organic compounds.
The sample came from Rocknest, a sandy, windblown spot where previous tests had already shown much of the material had been transported from elsewhere.
Curiosity has since moved on to an area called Point Lake, overlooking lower terrain, where JPL scientists hope to use its rock-sampling drill for the first time.
The rover's ultimate destination is Mount Sharp, in the center of the crater, where layered rock provides a good chance to find organic material.