Nasa Mars announcement: Red Planet could have building blocks of life, Curiosity rover shows – as it happened

Organic molecules preserved in 3.5 billion-year-old bedrock in Gale Crater suggest conditions back then may have been conducive to life

NASA Mars Helicopter Technology Demonstration

Nasa has revealed the latest results from its Curiosity rover gathering samples from the surface of Mars.

The US space agency announced Mars has the building blocks of life, in a discovery that could suggest the planet was once inhabited - or even still is today.

Read below to follow the announcements as they happened.

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Key Points

• Organic matter found on Mars, Nasa reveals in major announcement
• Nasa trails mystery Mars discovery courtesy of Curiosity rover

[7 June 2018 13:55 · Joe Sommerlad]

Hello and welcome to our coverage of Nasa's press conference announcing its latest findings from Mars courtesy of the Curiosity rover on the Red Planet.

[7 June 2018 13:56 · Joe Sommerlad]

The announcement is scheduled for 2pm Eastern Standard Time and 7pm GMT.

[7 June 2018 13:58 · Joe Sommerlad]

Broadcast live on Nasa's website, the chat will be hosted by Michelle Thaller, assistant director of science for communications, in the space agency's Planetary Science Division.

Other participants include: 

Paul Mahaffy, director of the Solar System Exploration Division at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Jen Eigenbrode, research scientist at Goddard.

Chris Webster, senior research fellow, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California.

Ashwin Vasavada, Mars Science Laboratory project scientist, JPL .

[7 June 2018 13:59 · Joe Sommerlad]

Members of the public are invited to make put questions to the panel on Twitter via #askNASA

[7 June 2018 15:17 · Joe Sommerlad]

Speculation is growing online that Nasa might be about to finally answer David Bowie's immortal question: "Is there life on Mars?" The excitement is such that, unless they do (or the discovery of Elvis Presley still alive and dining out on a highly repetitive diet of starchy space potatoes), there's going to be some disappointed stargazers out there.

[7 June 2018 16:31 · Joe Sommerlad]

While we await Nasa's big news, here's a selection of recent reports from our science and technology correspondent Andrew Griffin on the latest developments concerning Mars.

[7 June 2018 16:45 · Joe Sommerlad]

[7 June 2018 17:00 · Joe Sommerlad]

[7 June 2018 17:15 · Joe Sommerlad]

[7 June 2018 17:30 · Joe Sommerlad]