Lee Roop, The Huntsville Times

HUNTSVILLE, AL - NASA has scheduled a press conference in Washington Thursday to discuss an astrobiology finding that will affect the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life.

Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe.

The media event will be held at 1 p.m. CST at NASA Headquarters in Washington and broadcast live on NASA TV. The finding that is the subject of the press conference is embargoed until Thursday.

Participating on the press conference panel are:

Mary Voytek, director of the astrobiology program at NASA HQ.

Felisa Wolfe-Simon, NASA astrobiology research fellow, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Calif.

Pamela Conrad, astrobiologist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Steven Benner, distinguished fellow, Foundation for Appliied Molecular Evolution, Gainesville, Fla.

James Elser, professor, Arizona State University, Tempe.