On Wednesday, NASA will make an announcement about a "discovery beyond our solar system."
Pretty cool and mysterious sounding, right?
According to the space agency, the announcement is specifically related to "planets that orbit stars other than our sun, known as exoplanets."
Cool, cool. Exoplanets are a big deal in space science these days so it makes sense that NASA would plug the finding in a press event of some kind.
New discovery! We're announcing new findings on planets orbiting other stars tomorrow at 1pm ET: http://go.nasa.gov/2mi6HNl Q? #askNASA
You know what doesn't make sense? Rampant speculation that somehow this press conference, scheduled for 1 p.m. ET on a Wednesday — the same time the science journal Nature lifts its embargo every week — is an announcement that NASA has found alien life in the universe.
That hasn't stopped numerous news organizations and people on social media from speculating that the space agency will, in fact, publicly announce that aliens are real and we've found them. This is my favorite headline so far: "Has Nasa found ALIENS? Space agency to announce ‘discovery beyond our solar system"
Will be well gutted if nasa's announcement tomorrow isn't about aliens
'World on brink of being told aliens EXIST' after NASA 'hints at announcement' http://shr.gs/ces1bvP
'World on brink of being told aliens EXIST' after NASA 'hints at announcement'
THE world's population is being primed for an announcement that aliens have visited Earth after NASA hinted at new developments, conspiracy theorists have shockingly claimed.
express.co.uk
I'll be very sad if NASA's announcement isn't aliens
— Brendan Graham (@BRUNDAN_) February 21, 2017
This NASA announcement better be aliens.
Has Nasa found ALIENS? Space agency to announce ‘discovery beyond our solar system’ http://shr.gs/wKN2RVX
Has Nasa found ALIENS? Space agency to announce ‘discovery beyond our solar system’
NASA scientists are about to announce “new findings on planets that orbit stars other than our sun”- prompting speculation that it may have found ALIEN life.
express.co.uk
If you want to watch the NASA announcement — which is seriously not about aliens but is about something cool — the agency will stream it live in the window below starting at 1 p.m. ET Wednesday.
This isn't the first time NASA has gotten the internet's hopes up by plugging a mysterious sounding announcement before a science journal's embargo lifts, either.
This kind of thing seems to happen every time the agency hints at announcing any science result at all.
I understand the "HAS NASA FOUND ALIENS" articles are already showing up. I have some bad news. pic.twitter.com/Ayt5q9e9gV
NASA: We'll discuss our FY 2018 budget proposal at a press confe-
Public: IS IT ALIENS?
NASA: No, this is our budg-
Public: SO IT'S ALIENS?
It's actually a great strategy if you want people to watch your mid-day press conferences. But that said, it's also clear that this whole thing just gives news outlets free rein to speculate in an attempt to drive plenty of traffic.
But here's a good rule of thumb for all you consumers of news out there: It's not aliens.
Besides, we all know that if it ever is aliens, that news will be dumped overboard on a Friday evening before a long weekend.