Earlier this week, Indian media carried reports of an 18-year-old girl from a village in eastern India being selected for NASA's Goddard Internship Programme -- a story that quickly went viral.
It was reported that Sataparna Mukherjee was one of the five students chosen by the Goddard Institute of Space Studies. Mukherjee had said that she had never formally studied astrophysics but was selected after she shared her thoughts on 'black hole theory' on a Facebook group. According to her, a scientist from the group told her to share here findings with NASA, which then awarded her the scholarship to study in London.
However, a series of subsequent investigations found her claims to be false. NASA clarified that such an internship program did not even exist. It also did not have any record of Mukherjee being given any other internship or scholarship.
Further, NASA added that it only offers an internship to American citizens who live within 50 miles of New York City. Mukherjee had claimed that she would study at London Astrobiology Centre, but Goddard institute has no centre in the city.
“We have no record of anyone by that name receiving an internship, scholarship or any form of academic or financial assistance from any NASA institute, centre or program," NASA said in a statement.