Yesterday afternoon, space geeks around the country were on the edge of their seats awaiting news from NASA on the latest discoveries made by Mars rover Curiosity at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
Anticipation began building two weeks ago after NPR quoted mission chief scientist John Grotzinger as saying that the rover had recently gathered data “for the history books.”
Was the anticipation worth it? Is there really new information that will go down in history?
Denton Ebel knows a lot about the solar system, meteorites and outer space in general. He’s chair of the American Museum of Natural History’s Division of Physical Sciences.