But today NPR has a story about a story that can't yet be told. It's about data that suggests a discovery by the Curiosity rover--"a big" one--but that has to be further evaluated before an official announcement is made.
It's pretty clear what that story might be: life on Mars. Probably not alive now, but evidence of it in the past. Or at least the organic compounds.
Other news, of Curiosity moving to a new location, tends to cast some doubt on how strongly NASA feels the data is. Still.
It would be the biggest news story in human history, unless we're contacted by intelligent extraterrestrials before then. Life has existed somewhere else. In the broadest sense, but a very profound one, we are not alone.
It may take several weeks to test this data. Which means that an announcement, if it comes, might be made very close to the winter solstice, and all the holidays that celebrate birth, life emerging from winter, life emerging from darkness.
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