NASA was forced to repudiate viral reporting from several media outlets that the space agency was preparing to announce the discovery of alien life.
Several news outlets reported NASA was on the verge of announcing the discovery of alien life based on a video by the hacktivist group Anonymous. The video garnered nearly 2 million views, but it turned out to be a total hoax.
Outlets, like Newsweek and The Independent, treated the hoax video seriously, publishing lengthy articles on it. But the Anonymous video relied on out of context quotes from NASA Associate Administrator Thomas Zurbuchen’s testimony to Congress in April.
Zurbuchen told Congress about upcoming space missions to look for signs of life, but the video cuts to a clip of NASA official saying “we are on the verge of making one of the most profound, unprecedented, discoveries in history.” Zurbuchen rebutted the video on Monday.
Contrary to some reports, there’s no pending announcement from NASA regarding extraterrestrial life.
— Thomas Zurbuchen (@Dr_ThomasZ) June 26, 2017
Anonymous also pointed to a recent NASA discovery of 219 new potential planet outside of our solar system. Ten of these planets could have the conditions necessary for alien life, according to NASA.
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