The Big Curiosity Rover Discovery Is a Big Misunderstanding

When Curiosity chief scientist John Grotzinger sat down with NPR on Nov. 13, it was to discuss the rover's mission on Mars. But when the interview aired last week, it was just one quote on soil samples that made headlines: "This data is gonna be one for the history books."

It didn't take long for Twitter, Facebook and even other news organizations to pick up the quote. Similar to a childhood game of "Telephone," that statement ballooned into one of the week's biggest stories: After just a few months on Mars, the Curiosity rover had made, in the NPR reporter's words, an "earth-shaking" discovery. One so big that NASA had to quadruple-check the results.

That rumor, however, isn't ex…
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