This image was taken by Navcam Left A onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on September 16, 2012. Curiosity landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (morning of Aug. 6 EDT). UPI/NASA/JPL-Caltech

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When a NASA official said last week data from an instrument on the Mars Curiosity rover suggested something "for the history books," many people thought an announcement was imminent of the possible discovery of life on the Red Planet -- until the space agency began to seriously backpedal on the story.

It may be a case of once bitten twice shy as NASA has been through this before -- a hotly anticipated and heavily hyped bit of news that only disappoints in the end.

The current excitement began when Curiosity mission lead scientist John Grotzninger started receiving data on his computer from the rover's on-board chemistry lab while in the presence of a reporter from National Public Radio.

The instrument known as Sam, sample analysis at Mars, has been analyzing a Martian soil sample.

"This data is going to be one for the history books. It's looking really good," Grotzinger told NPR.

Grotzinger would not reveal anything more, saying it could be several more weeks while NASA scientists went over the data to make sure it wasn't a glitch or something from earth contaminating the instrument sample.

Still, a lot of people thought "one for the history books" could only mean SAM had found something suggesting evidence of life on Mars at some point.

SAM is in fact designed to look for organic molecules and while organic molecules would be important, it is not the same thing as "life on Mars." NASA quickly began downplaying talk of a major discovery.

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SciTechTalk: NASA says Mars discovery may not be 'one for the history books'