CTVNews.ca Staff Published Monday, Dec. 3, 2012 10:47AM EST Last Updated Monday, Dec. 3, 2012 2:35PM EST

The Mars Curiosity rover has analyzed samples of Martian soil for the first time and found compounds of water, sulfur and chlorine-containing substances, NASA said Monday, providing a more grounded update of the planets exploration after weeks of speculation and rumours.

The team stressed that while the rovers tools had detected organic compounds, it had not yet determined if the compounds were of Martian origin.

We have no definitive detection of Martian organics at this point, but we will keep looking in the diverse environments of Gale Crater," said team member Paul Mahaffy.

Members of the space agencys Curiosity team made the announcement during a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

The samples were collected from the Rocknest region by Curiositys arm and brought inside the rover to an analytical laboratory.

After the samples were collected, they were heated in a tiny oven. As gases were released, the Sample Analysis at Mars suite analyzed the substances and checked for organic compounds carbon-containing chemicals that can be ingredients of life.

The rovers detection of the compounds is a sign that the rover and all its tools are working well, said John Grotzinger, the lead scientist on the team.

The instrument SAM is working perfectly well it has made this detection of organic compounds, simple organic compounds; we just simply dont know if theyre indigenous to Mars or not, he said. Its going to take some time to work through that.

What weve got is a globally representative material on Mars that turns out to be a rich repository of environmental process and history.

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NASA set to make announcement about Mars mission