What "Earth-Shaking" Discovery Has Curiosity Made on Mars?

[Sionyn]

"NASA scientists have some exciting new results from one of the rover's instruments. On the one hand, they'd like to tell everybody what they found, but on the other, they have to wait because they want to make sure their results are not just some fluke or error in their instrument. The exciting results are coming from an instrument in the rover called SAM. 'We're getting data from SAM as we sit here and speak, and the data looks really interesting,' says John Grotzinger. He's the principal investigator for the rover mission. SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) is a suite of instruments onboard NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity. Grotzinger says they recently put a soil sample in SAM, and the analysis shows something Earth-shaking. 'This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good,' he says."

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

[JuKu]

Life?

"SAM – Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) is a suite of three instruments: a gas chromatograph, a quadrupole mass spectrometer, and a tunable laser spectrometer. Together they search for and measure the abundances of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen - elements that are associated with life as we know it. "

It is already known that Mars atmosphere contains methane, and the concentration increases on summer in areas where temperature is above 0C. There are other possible explanations, but bacteria-like activity is by far the most probable. So, it would be not that big surprise, but huge news anyway.