NASA is set to make a major announcement about what its Curiosity Rover has found on Mars this week.

The findings are being kept under lock and key but all will be revealed during a live press conference at 9am on Thursday.

3 NASA is to make a new announcement about what it has found on Mars this week Credit: Getty - Contributor

The car-sized exploration vehicle, which landed on the red planet in August 2012, sent back stunning snaps of its dusty landscape earlier this year.

They included an impressive panorama, taken from high up on the Vera Rubin Ridge, which shows more than 30 miles of its landscape.

Curiosity, NASA's longest running rover, has travelled more than 28 miles since it landed back in 2004.

The rover has proved to be a treasure trove of stunning Martian images, sending back over 224,000 snaps since it first arrived on the red planet.

3 NASA will reveal what the Curiosity Rover found on the planet at 9am on Thursday Credit: Reuters

It's currently exploring the Perseverance Valley – where the new pictures were taken – a giant channel which scientists claim was carved by running liquid.

In September, the rover found key evidence which suggested life may have existed on the desolate planet.

The discover of boron, a key ingredient for life, was a huge boost in the hunt for extraterrestrials.

It could back up a theory suggesting life on Mars may have been forced underground when disaster turned the planet into a "frigid desert".

3 n September, the rover found key evidence which suggested life may have existed on Mars Credit: AP:Associated Press

Patrick Gasda, of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, said: "Finding boron on Mars further opens the possibility that life could have once arisen on the planet.

"Borates are one possible bridge from simple organic molecules to RNA. Without RNA, you have no life.

"The presence of boron tells us that, if organics were present on Mars, these chemical reactions could have occurred."

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NASA unveiled the Curiosity's successor, the Mars 2020 Rover, in November.

It will blast off in a £1.5billion mission scientists hope will settle once and for all if are aliens on the Red Planet — or if they used to exist there.

It is equipped with a total of 23 cameras that will be able to zoom in on clues the size of a grain of salt.