Nasa ‘on verge’ of announcing alien life discovery, claims hacking group Anonymous
'We are on the verge of making one of the most profound and unprecedented discoveries in history', Nasa official quoted as saying
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Anonymous says Nasa is “on the verge” of announcing the existence of extra-terrestrial life.
A YouTube account affiliated with the hacking group has released a video making the claim.
It cites statements made by associate administrator for Nasa Thomas Zurbuchen during a congressional hearing on ‘Advances in the Search for Life’ in April.
The collective quoted Dr Zurbuchen as saying: “Our civilisation is on the verge of discovering evidence of alien life in the cosmos.
“Taking into account all of the different activities and missions that are specifically searching for evidence of alien life we are on the verge of making one of the most profound and unprecedented discoveries in history.”
The video adds that a number of recent findings, including the presence of hydrogen in Saturn’s moon discovered by the Cassini exploration craft, as well as the existence of oceans on Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter, provide grounds for optimism humanity must be close to encountering life that is not native to Earth.
Last week Nasa announced the discovery of 219 new suspected planets outside our solar system, including 10 which share characteristics with Earth.
They are “rocky”, like our planet, and exist in their solar systems’ “Goldilocks zone’, the optimum distance from their star for the existence of liquid water.
Detected by the Kepler space telescope, it brings the total number of suspected exo-planets the machine has identified to 4,034, 50 of which are near-Earth-size habitable zone candidates.
In a statement, Nasa said: “Results using Kepler data suggest two distinct size groupings of small planets. Both results have significant implications for the search of life.”
Anonymous also spoke of the discovery of a star system near to our own via the red dwarf TRAPPIST-1, which may have seven planets like Earth orbiting it and is only 39 light years away.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments