NASA Mars Rover Curiosity: A Big Week for Space Exploration

This panorama is a mosaic of images taken by the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity while the rover was working at a site called "Rocknest" in October and November 2012.

CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

Space Exploration fans have plenty to get excited about this week, beginning with a discussion of the latest findings from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity.

The Curiosity rover update is the first press conference scheduled here during the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), a huge gathering of Earth scientists, space scientists, students, educators and exhibitors this week. The conference begins today and ends Friday.

You can watch the Mars rover briefing live from 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT) via a webcast feed.

Last year, more than 20,000 people attended the fall meeting, which featured more than 6,000 oral presentations and 12,000 posters, according to the AGU website.

The 2012 edition should be similarly huge and action-packed. Its many multi-presentation sessions include three separate rounds on "Planetary Evolution and the Fate of Planetary Habitability" and four about "Planetary Atmospheres and Evolution".