Following a NASA announcement that they will soon reveal surprising findings about Europa, the space agency was forced to clarify that the news does not involve aliens.
The apparent misconception arose after NASA issued a press release touting the discovery of "surprising evidence of activity" on Europa that would be unveiled in an upcoming media conference next week.
Unfortunately, UFO enthusiasts seized upon those tantalizing words as a possible indication that the space agency was going to announce the discovery of some kind of life on Europa.
This, in turn, fueled garish headlines in the media speculating that the long-awaited discovery of aliens had arrived.
No doubt dismayed that their press release unleashed another round of soon-to-be-dashed hopes, NASA quickly issued a cheeky tweet saying, "Monday, we'll announce new findings from Jupiter's moon Europa. Spoiler alert: NOT aliens."
In fact, the space agency actually 'gave away the ending' in their initial press release, since the 'surprising activity' was outright suggested to be "related to the presence of a subsurface ocean on Europa."
It's a testament to many people's yearning for UFO answers that that portion of the announcement was conspicuously overlooked.
It is believed that the actual announcement on Monday will center around plumes of water from the surface of Europa which may allow astronomers unprecedented insight into the moon's ocean.
While that is a fairly amazing discovery and may enlighten science to a wealth of new information about Europa, it's a far cry from the fantastic find that would be some kind of alien life.
One conspiratorial caveat that may please UFO enthusiasts is the possibility that the entire dustup was a test run to see how such news would be handled by the public.
Should that be the case, let's hope we passed the test.
Source: Independent