Is Oumuamua an interstellar spacecraft? Do not believe the hype.

Perhaps you have heard that panic among aliens is sweeping the Internet.

You can not stay longer than a week or two without a new and ridiculous story about life that may be reigning in the universe, becoming viral, producing a breathless and overflowing cover in the same way. It's exhausting.

This week, all this extraterrestrial panic swirls around a story quoting a Harvard astronomer claiming that the first asteroid or interstellar comet ever discovered, named "Oumuamua" – could have been sent by extraterrestrials. It's sensational! It's perfect for the internet! It's also something you should be totally skeptical of.

Start with the motto "This is never extraterrestrials" and work from there. But it's easier said than done.

Here are some points to consider when you next attempt to detect an extraterrestrial panic on the Internet:

Whose source is it?

This is the big one. Always ask where a story comes from – with aliens and with anything else.

In the case of the interstellar asteroid presented this week, the story is based on the conjectures of a Harvard researcher, who gave NBC a quote specifying that the asteroid could be a foreign ship sailing under the radiance of our sun.

The piece has been linked to a new study that has not yet been peer-reviewed, which briefly mentions the idea that perhaps extraterrestrials might have sent the asteroid into the confines of the space according to its displacement.

Indeed, all this cover of extraterrestrial panic was caused by a quote from a researcher. Here is a good rule: casual comments do not make new stories.

Now, if the text announcing extraterrestrials had been attributed to more than one astronomer and had a lot of peer-reviewed evidence, things could be different.

How is it written?

You can learn a lot. about a story based on how it is written. As for a good story about extraterrestrials, you want it to have more than one source, or at least a lot of context.

For example, a quick search shows that scientists have actually kept a close ear to the radio signals emitted by Oumuamua as it pbaded through the solar system last year. However, they did not find anything. This is the kind of context that must appear in any news about this discovery.

Do a quick Google search to understand exactly what is being said about this news. If you find a problem – there are plenty of them for "Oumuamua" – it's nice that the breathless catches may not look like what they seem.

Also, always be wary of calls to authority in journalism. If the story (and the title) strongly support a single researcher from a very reputable institution, it is probably not a new one.

Which publication wrote the story?

How is history written? The most important tool that you can use to judge a foreign news, a look at the publication that tells it can also help you determine if the news arouses your enthusiasm.

Ask if the publication has already been covered. science reliably. (Look at places like The Verge, Ars Technica, big newspapers like the New York Times and the Washington Post Atlantic and, yes, Mashable for really always a good scientific cover.)

It is probably best not to trust a tabloid in scientific writing. If scientific publications do not talk about this, or if they are more skeptical, do it too.

What is the timing?

You can learn a lot about an alien story if you know why it's being released when it is.

NASA is the master of extraterrestrial panic with obvious timing. Generally, the space agency announces a press conference at 13 hours. AND on Wednesdays or 2pm ET on a Thursday under the auspices of an exciting announcement on "Life in the Solar System" or another tantalizing news nugget.

Although the agency does not disclose the news, the wise observer may know a little more about the story.

If the press conference is announced for any of these specific periods, it will correspond to an embargoed study published in one of the two major scientific journals – Science or Nature . (We know this because reporters have banned access to these journals every week.)

This presumably means that the story will be compelling, but probably not a definitive proof of extraterrestrial life.

The truth is that, if you're If we hope for some kind of "we found an announcement about little green men", then the White House will almost certainly be involved. It is likely, however, that newspapers and NASA will provide interesting scientific information on microbial life in the universe,

. I do not want to be a buzzkill. It's fun to think of aliens. It is good to wonder if we are alone in the universe.

But, at least for the moment, this is only a thought experiment. Just remember one thing: it's never extraterrestrial … until it happens.