It’s pretty much understood that there’s a lot we don’t know about space and the universe around us, but there are people out there who’ve made it their mission in life to educate themselves, and us. Of course, since there’s only a select few that have been to space, and only the smartest and brightest get to know all the secrets at NASA, there’s bound to be some talk about the things we don’t know.
While some of it is pretty mundane or scientifically over our heads, there’s a faction of people that have come up with some pretty wild conspiracy theories about space, because they’re too paranoid to believe the things the official space agencies tell us.
Time to deep dive into some pretty ‘out there’ theories about the universe around us. I’ll go get the tinfoil.
Theory: The Apollo moon landings were faked
Between 1969 and 1972, twelve NASA astronauts walked on the moon, and despite the photo and video evidence at the time, as well as updated photos of the landing sites, people still call shenanigans. Between wondering why where were no stars in the sky, to asking why the flags were fluttering, to pointing to strange shadows, people are convinced it was all done on a Hollywood soundstage. It wasn’t.
The answers are simple; there’s no stars in the pictures for the same reason you don’t see stars during the day on Earth – it’s too bright. The flags had metal rods sewn into them to make them look good, or else they’d droop, and the shadows were because of radiation and 60’s era photography tech.
Theory: NASA is a lie
There are actually people that believe that NASA’s job isn’t to explore space, but to generate space-based hoaxes. There’s even a hashtag “#NASAhoax” that people use to claim that pictures from Mars and of the Earth from space, are CGI.
Given that NASA’s been launching stuff into space since 1958 and there’s millions of pictures, debris and artifacts from space that have been collected and archived, I’m pretty sure this conspiracy theory is full of hot air.
Theory: The Earth is flat
This has got to be the dumbest theory out there, and the fact that there’s a Flat Earth Society and morons who try to prove their idiocy right, boggles the mind. Flat-earthers think that because the horizon is flat, and that there’s no evidence of a round Earth, that’s been provided by someone who’s not affiliated with NASA, a government or an agency, that it’s all a big lie.
There’s no big conspiracy to convince you that the Earth is a giant spinning ball. Because it is. Because science.
Theory: There’s a secret planet, Planet 9, and it’s gonna kill us all
In April 2016, an article in the NY Post suggested there’s a hidden planet at the edge of the solar system, that will be launching asteroids and comets in our direction, while using it’s gravitational pull to mess with our solar system. All of which, would spell our doom.
In reality, there’s no planet. Nothing proven at least. Scientists and astronomers have found that the motion of some objects in the icy Kuiper Belt by Neptune seem to be affected by some sort of gravitational pull, that could be because of a dark planet we can’t see. But if it exists, it poses no threat.
Theory: There’s alien research going on at Area 51
Of course, this super-secret military base in the middle of Nevada desert has to be part of a conspiracy theory. According to all of the theories out there, there are mysterious lights, sounds, occurrences and the security is obscenely tight.
In reality, this was an experimental airfield in the 60’s and 70’s and as a part of Edwards Air Force Base, they helped develop high tech planes and spy planes for the US military. Odds are, it’s still being used for that purpose, and they have every right to keep it a secret in the name of national security.
Theory: There’s another killer planet, known as Nibiru
This makes me think of the Marvel comic book villains Ego the Living Planet and Galactus. According to a 1976 book called “The Twelfth Planet,” there’s an ancient Sumerian cuneiform tablet that claims there’s a malevolent planet beyond Neptune called Nibiru that orbits the sun every 3,600 years. According to that ancient text, as well as from a few psychics, this planet was set to collide with Earth in 2003. That clearly didn’t happen. Then the date got moved to 2012. But, we’re still here.
Now, no one knows if it’s scheduled to hit us in the future, but astronomers are pretty sure (like 100%) that there’s no evil planet that’s gonna hit us.
Theory: There’s a face on Mars
In 1976, NASA’s Viking 1 spacecraft took a picture of a rock formation that looked like a face. When the pictures were released, people started saying that ancient aliens on the red planet must have carved it as some sort of sculpture/memorial. This was definite proof that there was other intelligent creatures in the universe.
Instead, it’s just a pile of rocks that casts shadows that make it look like a face. Recently, NASA’s released better quality images from 1998 and 2001, that make it clear that the “face on Mars” is just a trick of the light.
It did make for a very creepy episode of The X-Files though.
Theory: Saturn’s moon, Lapetus, is an alien Death Star
Honestly, there’s very little evidence to this theory, but here we go. Given the giant crater on the surface, and what looks like a trench around the equator, people think this is an ancient death star. As in the one from Star Wars. That’s it.
Theory: Saturn’s Hexagonal storm is alien technology
First spotted when NASA’s Voyager spacecraft flew by the planet in 1980, there’s a bizarre, six-sids structure/shape on the planet’s north pole. Since straight lines aren’t very common in nature, there’s a conspiracy theory that this was alien tech, or a gateway to hell.
In reality, it’s a hurricane, and scientists don’t know why it looks like that, but it’s definitely natural for Saturn.
Theory: Every few centuries, there’s a zero-gravity day
In late 2014 and early 2015, there was a story shared on social media that due to a rare alignment of the planets, everyone on earth would experience weightlessness. Apparently, this has been going on since the dawn of time.
Except, there’s no way that the Earth’s gravity would just stop, and no one would become weightless for a day or so. Gravity doesn’t work that way.
Theory: The Tunguska event was because of aliens
In June of 1908, a massive explosion levelled 770 square miles of forest in Russia. It’s generally believed that this was an airburst of an asteroid, as there was no impact crater, but others say aliens.
In 2004, scientists went to Siberia to explore the site and definitively prove the cause of the explosion. They came back to say it was possibly extraterrestrial, but wouldn’t offer any proof. So it’s probably bogus.
Theory: NASA caught an alien ship refuelling from the sun
NASA currently has a fleet of space-gazing spacecraft that keep an eye on space weather and the sun, especially for solar eruptions. In 2012, a video was captured that showed what looked like a UFO tethering to the sun.
NASA then went on to claim that this feature is something called a “prominence.” This is when there’s cooler and denser plasma in the outer atmosphere of the sun, and it comes off looking like a real object.
Not sure about this one. It looks pretty real to me.
Theory: Human objects on Mars
With NASA’s Opportunity and Curiosity Rovers regularly taking photos on Mars and sending them back, there’s a lot of images for us to check out about the Red planet. Over the years though, people have claimed to have seen things. Some have seen animals, sculptures, spoons and even a Sasquatch.
Except none of that stuff is actually there. With all the rocks, 2d photos and unfamiliar lighting, we just happen to see things we recognize, or our brain perceives it that way. It’s called Pareidolia, and it’s when the brain perceives meaningful images in random patterns.
Theory: NASA’s figured out how to travel faster than light, they’re just keeping it a secret
You know how on Star Trek they go to warp and in Star Wars they go to light speed. Yeah, that. You might find yourself wondering how soon NASA will develop that. Thus far, they’ve created something called the EmDrive, which has created a small amount of thrust, but it also violated Newton’s Third Law of Motion.
Given that it violates the laws of physics as we know them, nothing good can come of it, so they’ve yet to really wholeheartedly develop the tech.
Theory: There are alien-made canals on Mars
According to author Percial Lowell, writing back in the late 1800s/early 1900s, he was able to see canals on Mars, built by ancient civilizations. He used his very own telescope and sketched out a map of where these canals went, and now they moved water from one area to another.
Except no one can find those canals with today’s higher-powered telescopes and satellites. What they have documented, however, are smaller surface canals that were carved out by water, ice and erosion centuries ago.
Theory: There’s life on Venus
In the 70’s and 80’s, the Soviet Union sent several unmanned missions to study Venus. A total of ten probes (called the Venera Probe) landed on the surface and were able to transmit data and images for a few minutes, before succumbing to the harsh conditions of the planet’s atmosphere. In 2012, a scientist came forth to announce that they had seen living objects moving around on the planet’s surface. In the time since the photos were taken, photo enhancement technology was improving, so it took over 30 years to see the images clearly.
So are they living beings? No. It’s just a case of your mind seeing patterns in low-res data that it puts together as something recognizable.
You only see what you want to see.
Theory: Aliens landed at Roswell, New Mexico
As the story goes, aliens supposedly landed on a ranch in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. The government swooped in to clean it up and it was deemed an innocent weather balloon incident.
Since then, it’s been revealed that yes, it was a weather balloon, but it wasn’t innocent. It was a part of something called “Project Mogul” which involved a flying microphone on a high altitude balloon to listen for sound waves from Soviet Union nuclear tests.
Via Space
