Nasa announcement: How to watch the major breakthrough as it is announced live, and when it will happen
Very little detail has been revealed before the big announcement
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Your support makes all the difference.Nasa is about to make a major announcement about a breakthrough in its planet-hunting project.
The company has set a date for the press conference at which it will reveal all about the mysterious discovery.
There's very little information about what's actually going to be revealed. It will involve exoplanets, something being detected by the Kepler space telescope, and the use of AI – beyond that everything is just guesswork, though you can read a bit more detail on what we do and don't know here.
When will it happen?
Nasa will reveal all on Thursday, 14 December.
The announcement kicks off at 1pm eastern time. That's 6pm in the UK, or 2am the next morning in Hong Kong.
How can I watch?
As ever, Nasa will be providing a livestream so that you can watch the announcement as it happens. You'll be able to watch along at the space agency's devoted site for live events, which can be found here.
What if I want to read about it instead?
While much of the excitement comes from Nasa's announcement and press conference, something else happens at the same time. Select members of the media are given early access to the scientists and their work – and that means, usually, that newspapers can publish their reports on the new discovery at the same time the announcement begins.
Of course, you'll get more from the press announcement than will be in those reports, since scientists involved in the work will be taking questions from the press and the public. But if you'd prefer to read or won't be able to watch the event, then you'll get to see everything online too.
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