No signs of life found on Mars: NASA

USA-Curiosity Rover -- No signs of life found on Mars: NASA

 China Central Television (CCTV) - No definitive signs of life have been found on Mars so far, said the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in San Francisco on Monday.

The announcement came after the Curiosity rover completed its first chemical test of Martian soil, stirring up public speculation that the rover had found signs of life.Curiosity, which touched down on the Red Planet on Aug. 6, is the first Mars rover able to scoop soil into an analytical instrument.

A NASA project scientist recently said at an event held by the American Geophysical Union that the most recent data set from Mars would "be one for the history books."

During the NASA press conference Monday, people's attention is on SAM - Sample Analysis at Mars -- an instrument that takes up half of Curiosity's weight.

However, the opening words by the scientist at the press conference seem to have disappointed many.

"Let me start off by saying that SAM has no definitive detection to report of organic compounds," saidPaul Mahaffy, principal investigator for Curiosity's SAM.

"I expected a lot, like there would be this life on Mars. I expected a bit more," said Fabia Huesler, a scientist from University of Bern.

Scientists said a sample of sandy soil analyzed by the rover's lab contained water and a mix of chemicals, but not the complex carbon-based compounds considered necessary for life.

The rover did find a simple carbon compound, but scientists have yet to determine whether it is native to the Red Planet, or came from elsewhere.

"You know, we are doing science at the speed of science. We live in a world that's at the pace of Instagrams. And the enthusiasm that I had, we had, that our whole team has, I think was just misunderstood," said John Grotzinger, who is the scientist who made the "one for the history books" comment.

Grotzinger also admitted that he should have been more cautious with his words.

But still, these latest finding on Mars came as a groundbreaking surprise to many others.

"(It is) something that is building on everything we've done. That to me is the exciting part of this. The suite of instruments available on Curiosity, it's unprecedented," said James Zimbelman, a planetary biologist at the Smithsonian Institute.

Grotzinger also said exploration doesn't really get into full gear until next year, when Curiosity packs it up and heads to its true scientific destination: the enormous Mount Sharp.

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