What’s the Story?
Recently, there’s been a buzz online about NASA supposedly finding city lights from aliens. This claim has spread widely, especially on social media. However, Lynn Chandler from NASA confirmed this claim is completely false. Let’s clear up the confusion and explain what really happened.
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The TikTok Video Confusion
The confusion started with a TikTok video by user @modernday_eratosthenes. Her video was meant to debunk the false claim about city lights, not support it. She was frustrated with the spread of misinformation and wanted to set the record straight. “My video was about debunking that myth and my frustration with accounts spreading misinformation,” she told USA TODAY.
Unfortunately, a short clip from this video was shared online in a way that made it look like she was supporting the city lights claim. This misunderstanding contributed to the spread of the false information.
What Did NASA Actually Discover?
The only real news from NASA that’s somewhat related is an article from January 9, published by the James Webb Space Telescope team. They announced they had found a new brown dwarf. A brown dwarf is a type of space object that doesn’t shine like a star because it doesn’t have enough mass.
NASA detected unexpected infrared emissions from this brown dwarf, which was surprising given its cold nature and lack of a host star. The article did not mention city lights or signs of alien life. Instead, it suggested two possible reasons for the emissions:
- Auroras: Similar to the northern lights on Earth, these could be caused by particles from space interacting with the brown dwarf’s magnetic field.
- Interactions with Space: The emissions might be due to interactions with nearby interstellar plasma or an active moon.
City Lights from Space: The Bottom Line
There is no evidence that NASA discovered city lights in space. The confusion came from a misinterpreted TikTok video and a misunderstanding of NASA’s findings about a brown dwarf.
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