No, NASA Hasn't Found Alien Life

Recent studies suggest that the ocean that's sloshing beneath the icy shell of Saturn's moon Enceladus, seen here in a photo by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, may be a potentially habitable environment.

(Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)

NASA is not preparing to drop an alien-life bombshell, despite what you may have heard.

Last week, the hacking group Anonymous posted a video on YouTube suggesting that the space agency is about to announce the discovery of life beyond Earth. The video has made a big splash online — so big that NASA science chief Thomas Zurbuchen addressed the rumor today (June 26).

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During the April 26 hearing, which was called "Advances in the Search for Life," Zurbuchen laid out the progress NASA has been making in the hunt for life in the cosmos. He cited, among other things, the thousands of exoplanets spotted by the agency's Kepler space telescope, the recent discovery of hydrogen in the geysers blasting from the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus, and the possible detection of water-vapor plumes emanating from the Jovian satellite Europa.

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Michael was a science writer for the Idaho National Laboratory and has been an intern at Wired.com, The Salinas Californian newspaper, and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. He has also worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz.