Aliens

Does a short video show in reality a lanky extraterrestrial boarding a hovering spaceship in a snowy field before flying away above a Siberian forest? No, that's not true: The animated clip is a cropped version of a science fiction short film that first appeared on social media in early 2018. The claim appeared in a post and video on…

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…

Has NASA footage of a spaceship 3,200 kilometers (1,988 miles) long been recently released by a NASA engineer turned whistleblower? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that a spacecraft of this size followed the Apollo 13 mission to the moon and back. The UFO claims made by Bob Dean, who died in 2018 and was never a NASA…

Does a picture grid showing more than a dozen famous people, all of them with what seem to be black eyes, prove they got them from the COVID-19 vaccine? No, that's not true: All the images shown in the social media post were taken before December 2020, when the shots first became available. The claim appeared on Instagram on November…

Is the Earth flat and surrounded by a transparent barrier that prevents rockets from leaving the Earth's atmosphere? Beyond this barrier, is there a firmament composed of water or a liquid-like substance? Does this explain why the U.S. government in 1962 launched Operation Fish Bowl -- to use nuclear weapons to try and break through that barrier? No, that's not…

Was David Icke labeled a "level three terrorist" in an email he received from the Dutch government? No, that's not true: Dutch immigration authorities wrote Icke, a British conspiracy theorist and former soccer player, to inform him that he is banned for two years from traveling into countries that make up the European Union's border-free Schengen Area. The letter does…

Were pyramids that are twice as old as the Egyptian pyramids found in Russian Lapland and does the photo with this article accurately represent what they look like? No, that's not true: Clickbait photos misrepresent what the Kola Peninsula is, and exaggerations surround a 2007 expedition to investigate some unusually shaped hills on the Peninsula. Footage from that expedition was…

Is the interior Earth actually hollow, with access points at the North and South Poles that lead to a mythical land that is home to superhumans and extraterrestrial beings with advanced technology? No, that's not true: Though treated as a scientific supposition in the 17th century, the so-called "hollow Earth theory" has been disproved through modern science; yet it remains…

Did Russia publicly confirm the existence of a secret civilization under Antarctica? No, that's not true: The claim originated from a satirical fictional story labeled as such. The Russian government has never publicly revealed anything that would back up the existence of the purported "organism 46B" living under Antarctica. Many of the posts and articles implying the opposite in the…

Did the government release classified photos of UFOs and aliens? No, that's not true: This collection of images made in a vintage "Top Secret" style, showing purported alien autopsies and UFO crash sites were produced by the designer Douglas Pledger using an artificial intelligence (AI) program called Midjourney. They are not real. The video was originally posted on TikTok by…