NASA to announce 'discovery beyond our solar system'

This artist's concept depicts one possible appearance of the planet Kepler-452b, the first near-Earth-size world to be found in the habitable zone of a star that is similar to our sun. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle)

This artist's concept depicts one possible appearance of the planet Kepler-452b, the first near-Earth-size world to be found in the habitable zone of a star that is similar to our sun. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle)

Scientists will share newly discovered information on Wednesday about planets that orbit stars other than Earth's sun at a 1 p.m. news conference hosted by NASA.

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The announcement that NASA would share findings on a "discovery beyond our solar system" came Monday. The vague nature of the tease prompted speculation that scientist could unveil the discovery of an alien species.

However, as Mashable pointed out in an article headlined "It's not aliens. It's never aliens. Stop saying it's aliens," it's not aliens. Scientists promised that despite the news conference not addressing alien life, the announcement would still include "exciting news."

NASA will air the news conference at 1 p.m. on its website.

Speakers include Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters; Michael Gillon, astronomer at Belgium's University of Liege; Sean Carey, manager of NASA's Spitzer Science Center; Nikole Lewis, astronomer at Baltimore's Space Telescope Science Institute and Sara Seager, professor of planetary science and physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.

The group will follow the presentation at 3 p.m. with a Reddit Ask Me Anything conversation about exoplanets.