Fact Check

Did NASA Discover a New Planet Covered with Marijuana?

Planet X637Z-43 is reportedly a natural habitat for pot.

Published May 27, 2015

Claim:
NASA has discovered a new planet covered in marijuana.

On 24 May 2015, the NewsWatch28 web site published an article reporting that NASA had discovered a new planet completely covered in marijuana:

NASA discovers new planet covered with marijuana

NASA has announced this morning that they have discovered a planet completely covered with marijuana, a discovery that has completely taken scientists by surprise.

Planet X637Z-43, discovered using NASA's Kepler satellite, would also allegedly be one of the very few planets potentially habitable according to NASA experts, who have detected sufficient levels of oxygen and nitrogen to support human life.

The presence of marijuana on other planets could strongly encourage future generations to take interest in space exploration, some experts believe.

"We always think young people aren't interested by anything but it's false. Young people love smoking pot," explains David Charbonneau, astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

There was no truth to this report, however. It originated with NewswWatch28, a junk news site that previously published fabricated clickbait stories about tranquilizer darts being sold for use on children and a death hoax concerning actor Al Pacino.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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