NASA did not say the Hindu calendar gives accurate information on solar eclipse

Hyderabad: A message is doing the rounds of social media claiming that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has finally accepted that only the Indian Panchanga (Hindu calendar) gives accurate information on solar eclipses.

The message reads, "After spending 120 corers and changing their statement three times, finally, NASA has accepted that only Indian Panchanga (Hindu calendar) gives accurate information on solar eclipses." (Translated)

An Instagram page, Hindiwikipedi, shared the message.

Click here to see the post.

Fact Check

NewsMeter ran a keyword search about NASA accepting Indian Panchanga as an accurate source on solar eclipse but did not find any report by credible media organisations. Had NASA accepted it, as is being claimed by social media users, Indian media would have reported it.

Further, we found an article by the entertainment website, The Fauxy, that said a NASA employee acknowledged that the organisation uses Panchanga to predict astronomical events, including solar and lunar eclipses.

However, the website has a disclaimer that reads, "The Fauxy is an entertainment portal. The content of this website is purely for entertainment purposes, and readers are advised not to confuse the articles of The Fauxy as genuine and true."

The Fauxy, in the grab of entertainment, publishes articles with misinformation, which go viral on social media. The false information published by the website has been regularly debunked by fact-checking organisations.

Finally, we came across a chat transcript where solar astronomer Mitzi Adams from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center answered questions about eclipses. When someone said that in the Hindu religion it is believed that an eclipse occurs when a snake swallows up the sun, Adams said, "Eclipses in Hindu are related to Rahu and Ketu, which are actually associated with the nodes of the moon's orbit. There are two times when the moon can be in the same plane as a line between the Earth and the sun. This is called the ecliptic— when the nodes occur is when eclipses are possible. Tradition says that Rahu is the head of a demon, and Ketu is the tail. I suspect that the ancient Hindu actually knew about the nodes."

Since there are no reports stating that NASA has accepted Panchanga as the accurate source to predict solar eclipses, the claim is false.