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Alleged NASA site hypes ‘historic discovery’

An alleged NASA website quietly appeared on the Internet this week. The space-themed Rememberthe13th.com boldly claims that an upcoming announcement will reveal “The Biggest Discovery That will shake the earth,” and after this announcement is made, the world “will never be the same again.”

The Rememberthe13th website.

The Rememberthe13th website.

This website is a very simple one-page site with minimal information. The site is named Rememberthe13th.com because this Earth-shaking announcement was allegedly scheduled to take place on November 13. Although the site is light on details, its social media icons point to social media profiles linked to the Mars rover Curiosity, hinting that this alleged announcement has something to do with a discovery on Mars. The site explains,

NASA has made a historic discovery that will shake the entire planet. This announcement will be released to the media on November 13th, 2013. It will be a day to remember and One for the history books. Spread the word to your family & friends and sign up to stay updated!

And although this site has only been active for a few days, the “Remember the 13th” slogan for this hyped discovery announcement is already inapplicable. On Thursday, October 3, the site was updated to announce “Due to change in plans, we will announce this discovery earlier than previously expected. Tune in on October 6th to see what everyone is talking about.”

Mono Lake (credit: Michael Gäbler)

Mono Lake (credit: Michael Gäbler)

In November of 2010, NASA issued a press release announcing a news conference at which a discovery would be revealed that would “impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life.” This press release was intentionally vague, and generated lots of excitement and publicity for the announcement. The big reveal ended up being about arsenic-based bacteria living in a California lake, which, of course, deflated the hopes of those who thought NASA was going to announce the discovery of extraterrestrial life.

Although NASA has teased the world with major announcements in the past, many doubt the legitimacy of Rememberthe13th.com. For starters, it is unlike NASA to make a major announcement without first issuing a press release. Additionally, it is unlike NASA to put NASA-related material on a non-NASA website. The domain name Rememberthe13th.com was just registered on October 1, and the registration information indicates that the domain was privately registered to conceal the identity of the actual registrant. One would expect a NASA-affiliated website to be registered by NASA or the U.S. government, and hosted on NASA’s web servers. Neither is true for Rememberthe13th.com.

The Caelus website template. (Credit: themeforest.net/oxygenna)

The Caelus website template. (Credit: themeforest.net/oxygenna)

The space theme of the site’s design seems like a perfect NASA design. But the theme is actually a cheap website template named Caelus. The creators of the site did not even bother changing all of the default text included in the template.

Perhaps the biggest indicator that this website is fraudulent is the fact that NASA employees have been furloughed due to the current U.S. government shutdown. With NASA operations at a standstill, it seems unlikely that the agency would make a major announcement at the current time. Further, a weekend announcement from government employees would be unusual.

The true motive behind this site is unclear. Some suggest the site is a viral marketing campaign for an upcoming movie or video game. Yet others, like Phil Plait from Slate Magazine, present the possibility that the site is simply a phishing scam looking to harvest email addresses.

Although an Earth-shattering announcement from NASA is possible, the red flags displayed by the Rememberthe13th.com website make that possibility unlikely. Time will tell. But again, don’t remember the 13, remember October 6 . . . or not.

READ OUR UPDATE TO THIS STORY – Fake NASA website reveals ‘purple ninja,’ not aliens

About Jason McClellan

Jason McClellan is a UFO journalist and the producer/co-host of the web series Spacing Out! He is also the web content manager and staff writer for OpenMinds.tv, and a co-organizer and technical producer of the International UFO Congress. As a founding member of Open Minds, Jason served as a writer and editor for the now defunct Open Minds magazine. He has appeared on Syfy, NatGeo, and, most recently, he co-starred on H2's Hangar 1: The UFO Files. ------ Follow Jason on Twitter @acecentric and subscribe to Jason's updates on Facebook.

19 comments

  1. Of course the “remember the 13th” website is just a big hoax. There’s not a single credible media source that reports it, and if it were this earth-shattering, surely all the regular media would be all over it.

    I only find websites such as beforeitsnews.com, godlikeproductions.com and abovetopsecret.com to report it, and they’re all fake and paranoid conspiracy theory websites. They spread information that is blatantly wrong or plainly invented, such as about chemtrails, New World Order, Illuminati, David Icke’s Reptilian Aliens, etc… No one in their right mind would take any of those fantasies in any way serious.

    Good on Openminds.tv to rise above that idiotic crap and show why rememberthe13th.com is just a plain fake!

  2. This looks like a marketing piece for an upcoming movie or tv show.

  3. The countdown timer looks like it’s on a string of movie tickets … so perhaps it is a Sci-Fi Movie promotion ?

  4. Yes, because NASA *always* registers vanity domains like this for their press releases. And the always use a Panamanian privacy protector to obfuscate the real owners of those domains, too.

  5. in CA, we have lots of Aliens living amongst us

  6. NASA is shut down. Government services that are not “essential” aren’t available during the government shut down. NASA is not “essential” according to the shut down policies. Everyone at NASA (except security and maintenance staff) has been put on unpaid leave until the shut down is over.

    NASA can’t even post on Twitter for Pete’s sake, just look at anyone of their official Twitter accounts and you’ll see the same message about being unable to come on-line again until after the shutdown.

    If NASA isn’t available to even post on Twitter and Facebook, why would they be making cheap web pages and putting out a sudden announcement; and during the shut down none-the-less?
    The wouldn’t, they couldn’t, and they are not. Its a hoax.

  7. Also, isn’t most of NASA on furlough because of the government shutdown? It’s highly unlikely that they would make an announcement of any magnitude (other than everyone being able to return to work) while most of their staff isn’t even available…

  8. what shouldn’t be taken lightly is that asteroids have been predicted to proximate the earth on Oct the 5th. Now that the gov is “down” could they just be bunkering down in the inevitable event of chaos?

  9. Ugotta B. Kiddinmee

    Wow..is David another shill or does he live in a closet?
    Icke? Yeah he’s a quack, but if David honestly thinks the rest of those topics are fake, or conspiracy “theories” rather than proven conspiracy “fact”, he seriously needs to get out more.
    My goodness how “dense ostrich” can people still be.
    For cryin’ out loud wake up already.
    “Conspiracy Theories”..pfft, that may have worked 20 years ago, but not anymore.

  10. It links to a stupid music video of some teenager. Obviously an attempt at fame, knowing how the media works these days. Trying to be the next big flash-in-the-pan internet success. Sad sad sad!!!!!!

  11. Karl Grønneberg

    It’s just some jokers crap rap video? I clicked the link and it takes you to a YouTube video???

  12. Why waste time on this?

  13. Site now links to a stupid video on youtube about purple ninjas… yea.

  14. The website was edited today. It shows a link to the stupidest video in the world. Why would anyone fall for this?

  15. So, did anyone end up clicking on this to see what it was?

  16. I cannot believe you guys got sucked in by this!!!!

  17. @Iain – If you read the article, you’ll see that we point out the reasons why the site screamed “bogus” from the start.

  18. @Jason, I understand the theme of the article and that is points out that it should not be taken at face value but come on giving air time to this junk that makes a mockery of the pursuit of disclosure.

    Personally I think the article had no place on this site and all it achieved was reducing this sites creditability and promoted some dreadful “music” (I used that term in the loosest possible way) video.

    This subject has enough ridicule and jokes made about it do we really want to support this? This is nothing personal against you Jason and I do enjoy reading a lot of the articles here so lets draw a line underneath this, move on and get back to the subject at hand.

  19. @Iain, Your frustration with this type of junk is noted, and is valid. But when this type of thing starts spreading through news outlets, social media channels, etc., many people take the claims at face value and fall for the scams. We are bombarded with people asking for more information or for verification when these things emerge. An important part in the pursuit of truth is identifying and eliminating from discussion those things that are not true.

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