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. Though K2-18 b is a real planet that boasts carbon-bearing molecules that indicate it could be home to liquid water, scientists have not discovered life on the exoplanet nor built a "device that could talk across galaxies" to communicate with "creatures," as the video claims.
The claim appeared in a video on Facebook on April 16, 2024 (archived here), with a caption that read:
Another life on planet founded..😳
#joerogan #joeroganexperience #podcast #viral2024
This is how the video appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Apr 18 16:33:36 2024 UTC)
The video of Rogan uses footage of him, presumably from his podcast, but the audio is stilted. The video creates the impression that the above clip is from an episode of his show. Lead Stories searched through Rogan's YouTube channel (archived here). We found that he wore a similar shirt seen in at least three episodes posted in 2024: two clips on February 28, here and here, and again on March 15.
The video posted on Facebook opens with the Rogan-sounding voice saying, "This is scary. Once upon a time, scientists found something amazing using a powerful telescope called the James Webb Telescope. They found life on a planet called K218B, which is kind of like Earth. The planet has oceans, just like Earth does."
But Rogan's mouth is covered by the microphone, obscuring whatever he might have actually been saying. The audio is stilted and the words have a mechanical sound. When the audio begins discussing the supposed discovery, the video cuts away from Rogan to show generic and cartoon footage of what appear to be scientists working, planet surfaces, aliens and pyramids.
Aside from the first two seconds of the clip, Rogan's face is not shown in the video. The narration goes on to describe the purported discovery, saying:
When the telescope got close to the planet, it started getting signals from one of the islands there.
Scientists worked heard to understand these signals, and after awhile they figured them out. They were shocked by what they learned. The signals gave them instructions on how to build a special device. This device could talk across galaxies. It took the scientists two days to build it and when they turned it on, they heard a voice speaking English, but the voice wasn't human. It came from something very different.
After talking for a while, the scientists learned something really surprising. The creatures on K2 18 B said they came from Earth a long, long time ago -- about 3,000 years ago when the pyramids were being built in Egypt. This was mind-blowing.
As of this publication, the account (archived here) that posted the video, PodClips, had also posted dozens of other similar reels with Rogan's face at the beginning. However, it does not appear to be connected to Rogan. According to the page's "About" section (archived here), it was created on January 20, 2024, and is described as:
Hi everyone, I am the manager of famous podcaster, and story writer, I have much knowledge about history because I got MA degree in History, I'll provide you very informative content
Lead Stories did a search using keywords on the Google News archive of thousands of reliable information sites, visible here, which found no credible documents or reporting to corroborate the claim.
K2-18 b is a genuine "super Earth exoplanet" (archived here), a planet beyond our solar system, discovered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft in 2015, according to the space agency. In 2023, the exoplanet was observed by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, which NASA described (archived here) as the "largest, most powerful and most complex telescope ever launched into space."
The investigation "revealed the presence of carbon-bearing molecules including methane and carbon dioxide," said NASA in a news release (archived here) published on September 11, 2023, Researchers wrote that K2-18 b could be a Hycean exoplanet -- one that "has the potential to possess a hydrogen-rich atmosphere and a water ocean-covered surface." Because the exoplanet is considered in the "habitable zone," (archived here), meaning there could be water on its surface, NASA writes that "some astronomers believe that these worlds are promising environments to search for evidence for life on exoplanets."
However, scientists have not discovered life on the K2-18 b. NASA writes:
While K2-18 b lies in the habitable zone, and is now known to harbor carbon-bearing molecules, this does not necessarily mean that the planet can support life. The planet's large size -- with a radius 2.6 times the radius of Earth -- means that the planet's interior likely contains a large mantle of high-pressure ice, like Neptune, but with a thinner hydrogen-rich atmosphere and an ocean surface. Hycean worlds are predicted to have oceans of water. However, it is also possible that the ocean is too hot to be habitable or be liquid.
Furthermore, there is no evidence to corroborate the claim that scientists "received signals" from K2-18 b nor that they built a "device that could talk across galaxies" to communicate with "creatures" on the exoplanet.
Lead Stories reached out to Rogan's representative for comment and will update this article if a response is received.
Other Lead Stories fact checks about claims involving Joe Rogan can be found here.
