Today in things Helen Sharman didn't say:

Aliens definitely exist and might even be living among us on Earth right now! says Britain's first astronaut. That's according to this super misleading headline. Go on, click on it. It's barely what the woman said. I'll wait. Back? Yeah, I know you didn't click on it.

Except no she didn't.

She's right! From this altitude
you can barely see how badly
we've fucked everything up.

Anyway, Helen Sharman, the first Briton to go into space, gave an interview to the Guardian in which she described the incomparable beauty of the Earth as seen from space and the drive that made her not just the first British astronaut or ye olde aestroenaughte, as they say in the U.K. (no they don't), but also the first female British astronaut. But sure, let's take her comment on the possibility of extraterrestrial life and the impossibility of proving that aliens are not on earth, and make some click bait out of it.

"Oy! Blimey, that's a load o'cobblers..."

-Dr. Helen Sharman

Here's the five percent of the interview that everyone's making a thing out of:

"Aliens exist, there's no two ways about it. There are so many billions of stars out there in the universe that there must be all sorts of different forms of life. Will they be like you and me, made up of carbon and nitrogen? Maybe no. It's possible they're here right now and we simply can't see them."

-Helen Sharman, not wearing a tinfoil hat

I for one refuse to accept that the species
that produced the emoji movie represents
the pinnacle of evolution in the universe.

Look, I'm not anti-alien, far from it. I mean, I'm with Sharman on this one, of course the universe is full of life and of course there's a non-zero possibility that sentient aliens could possibly be aware of us. And sure, who knows? Maybe they love slumming it on this backwards, rapidly heating, shithole planet. After all, who wouldn't want to watch Rome collapse in on itself? Or plunk oneself down on a freshly arranged deck chair and listen to the band on the Titanic safe in the knowledge you can beam yourself up at the last second?

But again, to be clear, Helen Sharman, first British person in space did not tell a major news outlet that there are invisible aliens living among us. She did however reflect upon her historic trip to the Mir space station back in 1991 and how it forever changed her perspective on life, but sure, let's say she said some nonsense about aliens living among us.

Pictured: That time Helen Sharman made space exploration history.
Not pictured: that time thirty years later when comments she made in an interview
were taken out of context and now she's the "aliens live among us" lady.