NASA just clapped back at Anonymous after its alien conspiracy theory went viral

Earlier this week, a viral video from an Anonymous-associated YouTube account falsely claimed that NASA is about to unveil intelligent alien life found in outer space. Though we were skeptical of it from the very beginning, a NASA scientist just formally debunked the myth once and for all.

"Contrary to some reports, there's no pending announcement from NASA regarding extraterrestrial life," Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, tweeted on June 27.

Zurbuchen would know — quotes from his testimony at the April 2017 House Committee on Science, Space and Technology hearing were used in the Anonymous video as "evidence" that NASA was keeping aliens a secret.

"With all of this activity related to the search for life, in so many different areas, we are on the verge of one of the most profound discoveries ever," Zurbuchen had said. But he didn't necessarily mean he had big news to drop within the next few months.

Here's the truth: NASA is looking for extraterrestrial life, but there's no guarantee that those missions will actually bring back anything close to ET or Yoda. A recent discovery of 219 possible new planets, all spotted by the Kepler space telescope, could be a promising start; 10 of those 219 candidates are around the size of Earth and could possibly support life, though scientists aren't sure about that yet, either.

"Are we alone in the universe? While we do not know yet, we have missions moving forward that may help answer that fundamental question," Zurbuchen wrote on Twitter.

We may not know much about aliens, but we do know not to trust baseless claims made by a cloaked, faceless figure with a robotic voice.