NASA to make public on Tuesday discovery by Kepler Space Telescope, fueling speculations it would confirm alien life

Space agencies in the US and Europe have been accused by conspiracy theorists of covering up evidence about alien life. The Tuesday announcement by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has fueled speculation among believers in extraterrestrials that the space agency would confirm their theory.

NASA did not give details about the planned announcement, except that it would reveal the latest discoveries made by its Kepler Space Telescope, reports Express. The telescope is tasked with hunting for new planets.

Last week, the British daily quoted Ellen Stofan, chief scientist of NASA, that “there are strong indications of life beyond Earth.” But Stofan is not listed in the announcement of the four participants to the news teleconference slated at 1 pm EDT.

The four are Paul Hertz, director of NASA’s Astrophysics Division at the agency’s headquarters in Washington; Timothy Morton, associate research scholar at Princeton University in New Jersey; Natalie Batalha, Kepler mission scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center n Moffett Field, California; and Charlie Sobeck, Kepler/K2 mission manager at Ames.

NASA launched Kepler in March 2009. At that time, scientists lacked knowledge about common planets outside the solar system to which Earth belongs. Because of Kepler’s discoveries, astronomers say there is at least one planet orbiting every star in the sky.

In 2012, Kepler finished its main mission when two of its four orientation-maintaining reaction wheels failed. But two years later, NASA extended its mission, called K2 which searches for exoplanets, while at the same time introducing new research opportunities to study supernovae, young stars and other cosmic phenomena.