&Quot;Solar System&Quot;

Does the scientific community as a whole share the notion that a newly discovered interstellar object 3I/ATLAS is an alien spacecraft heading to Earth for a "surprise attack" in November 2025? No, that's not true: The NASA website says that it's a comet and that it doesn't pose any risk to Earth. Three astronomers told Lead Stories that, as of…

Did Joe Rogan claim scientists have found extraterrestrial life on a planet known as "K2-18 b," as a video on Facebook suggested? No, that's not true: As narration that sounds like Rogan describes the supposed discovery, images cover his face so it's not obvious if the voice is dubbed. There is no evidence the podcast host ever made the comments.…

Will the sun and moon not be in alignment on April 8, 2024, because the heavenly bodies are "in the wrong place" astrologically? No, that's not true: A video on TikTok making this claim is misleading on three points -- the alignment of the sun and moon during a total eclipse, the function of an app called SkyView and the…

Is the moon a machine that is filled with computers? No, that's not true: The moon is a rock with a metallic core, according to NASA, the agency that has studied the moon and outer space for decades. The United States has landed men on the moon, and there have been multiple countries around the world that have sent spacecraft…

Did U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggest that Elon Musk go to the sun to study climate change? No, that's not true: The audio and the visual backdrop of this video clip have been digitally altered. In the real interview that this footage was taken from, on the CBS program "Face the Nation," Ocasio-Cortez did not speak about sending Musk to…

Did a "confidential source" find more than 250 million "humanoid aliens" living on the moon? No, that's not true: NASA told Lead Stories they have not yet found any sound evidence of extraterrestrial life. The key word "humanoid" implies that these aliens are similar to humans. Since humans can't survive on the moon, "humanoid aliens" would also not be able…

Did the word "horizon" come from the word "horizontal," and is this evidence that the Earth must be flat? No, that's not true: The word "horizon" came first, and the adjective "horizontal" followed. The adjective describes something "relating to or near the horizon." The word "horizon" originated from the ancient Greek term "ὁρίζων κύκλος" (horízōn kýklos), which means "separating (or…

Does a time-lapse video of the midnight sun in Alaska show that the sun appears to get smaller as it approaches the horizon -- thus proving that this is a "local sun" that is very close to Earth in a closed environment, part of the firmament? No, that's not true: The footage of slightly more than one full day has…

Is global warming caused by the solar system having two suns? No, that's not true: An astronomy expert and the National Weather Service told Lead Stories this claim is "completely false." The claim appeared in a video on Instagram on November 28, 2022. The caption for the posted video read: Just hanging out by the Great Spinx's paw dropping 4BIDDENKNOWLEDGE.…

Is the sun smaller than the Earth, and does it rotate around the Earth? No, that's not true: For centuries, scientists have shown that everything in our solar system, including the Earth, revolves around the sun, which is more than 100 times larger than the Earth. The claim that the Earth dominates the sun appeared in an Instagram post on…