In Brief A Youtuber claiming affiliation with the hactivist group Anonymous released a video stating that NASA is on the verge of announcing the discovery of intelligent life. The video takes quotes out of context and adds their own unproven assumptions. Anonymous Tip

Living in these uncertain times, it seems that false news stories generated to rack up the clicks disseminate faster than ever before. Some of these fake stories even make it beyondthe traditionally susceptible Great Uncles Facebook feed and are quickly gobbled up by traffic-hungry publications who are more concerned with riding a wave of sensationalism than earnestly informing the populace. Such a story had its grips on publications across the internet today, and the salacious topic fueling the frenzy was (of course) aliens.Click to View Full Infographic

A video was posted by a self-describedmember of Anonymous a loosely associated international hacktivist group who claimed that they hadexclusive evidence from NASA saying that we are on the verge of discovering alien life. The person in the Guy Fawkes mask with the digitally-altered voice goes even further, claimingthat theyre not just talking about microbial life, but advanced, space-faring civilizations.

Unfortunately, the facts just do not measure up to these claims which were taken out of context from actual hearings. Keeping in mind thatNASA is certainly making significant progress in discovering life on other planets,The Washington Post decided to do some actual journalism and reach out to NASA for a quote on the fake news. While were excited about the latest findings from NASAs Kepler space observatory, theres no pending announcement regarding Extra-Terrestrial life, a spokesman for the agency wrote.

One of the quotes pulled for the video was said by NASAs Thomas Zurbuchen during a congressional hearing back in April (the entire hearing is publicly available). Zurbuchen did indeed state We are on the verge of making one of the most profound, unprecedented discoveries in history, but he was discussing the discovery of possible habitable planets around distant suns, as well asorganic chemicals being found on a moon of Saturn.

Futurism will continue to follow all leads regarding the search for life beyond Earth but we will do so with the full backing of peer reviewed science and not by taking the word of a viral video.

View original post here:

Did NASA Just Discover Alien Life? Spoiler Alert: No. - Futurism