Breaking News—Evidence of Alien Life Has Been Found!

Have our hopes and dreams finally become a reality? Have we finally discovered that alien life really does exist?

The answer: no, we haven't... Not yet at least. We have yet to hear a truthful and scientifically proven answer to that age-old fundamental question.

For years, there's been a constant barrage of headlines claiming that alien life has been discovered or that NASA is going to make some huge bombshell announcement that's it's finally happened and life as we know it will forever be changed. Unfortunately, there isn't an ounce of truth in any of these so-called stories. People post fake videos on YouTube or blatantly claim to anyone who will listen that they saw a UFO or were visited or abducted by aliens. Pictures and videos are doctored to make it appear that evidence of alien existence has been captured—much like ghost sightings and good ole' Bigfoot. These rumors and false claims make the entire subject feel somewhat tainted.

The rumors have been so prominent lately, especially on YouTube, NASA's chief of science was required to address the issue as a result. While NASA has made progress in what is called "Advances in the Search for Life," nothing has specifically been found to support the rumors. There have been many new discoveries in space: exoplanets the size of Earth, geysers blasting hydrogen from Saturn's moon, Enceladus, water-vapor spewing from the Jovian satellite Europa, even the new planet called Ross 128 which could be our best hope of having conditions to support life. But there's been no actual discovery of life outside of Earth.

The truth according to NASA, is that they are certainly making headway in the actual search. Presently, they're not focusing on specifically finding other life forces, but rather on finding planets with the atmospheric conditions that could support life. If they can find sustainable atmospheres, then it warrants the search for actual living organisms within that atmosphere. We are on the verge of discovering really great things, but this verge could be a long ways away.

So getting back to business... We all know how things get passed around in conversation, how words and information get twisted and changed as they're told from one person to the next, things become seriously exaggerated, etc. This is how rumors and conspiracy theories are born. By the time this information gets to you, do you honestly know if it's true or false? We can only speculate. Tabloids make millions off of this stuff after all.

My point is basically this—when it really happens, when extraterrestrial life truly has been discovered, what then? Do we believe it? Do we trust the source or do we write it off as another scam story? Who can we trust to give us the correct information? Will we even be privy to that information?

I guess we won't know until it happens, if it does. But until then, don't be quick to assume that everything you see, hear or read is real. Even a simple article title can say something that will grab your attention, but you won't know the whole story until you actually read the article itself. In the end, it may be something completely different than what you expected.