Fact Check: Viral video shows Mars landscape shot by NASA’s Curiosity, not moon by Chandrayaan-3
The video shows visuals of Mars' surface as captured by NASA’s Curiosity Rover.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 26 Aug 2023 10:09 AM GMT
Screengrab from the Facebook post.
Hyderabad: A desaturated video showing hilly terrain in grey colour is viral on social media, with users claiming that it shows the first visuals of the moon’s surface from Chandrayaan-3 after its landing.
A Facebook user shared the video with the caption, “Chandrayaan 3 sent first moon video after landing. (sic)”
(Image Credit: Facebook)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the video shows visuals of Mars' surface as captured by NASA’s Curiosity Rover.
We analysed the video thoroughly and at around 2:40 minutes, we noticed the text “latest 4K resolutions most fascinating panoramic scenes from NASA’s Mars rover” at the bottom of the video. This gave us the clue that the video may not be footage of the moon.
Next, we performed a reverse image search of the video’s keyframe and found a YouTube channel called DIGITAL SPACE which has the viral video published on August 8, 2023. It was titled ‘LIVE in Mars 4k | NASA’s Perseverance Rover Tracking Mars planet with New Data Yet.’
The scrolling text at the bottom of this video stated that NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this 360-degree view of an impact crater in a location called Jau on Mars. However, this video had a brown tint, unlike the grey colour of the viral video, which indicated that the colour in the viral video was digitally changed.
We also found the extended version of the video by a YouTube channel called Tavi Technical Space, published on August 8, titled ‘Mars Rover’s Panoramic Cam Capture Latest 360° Unexpected Weird 4K Video Footage of Mars Life.’
In the description, it is stated that the panoramic scene of Mars was created by stitching several images taken on Sol 3089 and 3090 by NASA’s Rover on Mars.
On NASA’s website, we also came across several panoramic images and 360-degree videos of Mars of different solar days (sol). Solar day or sol refers to the time that Mars takes to revolve once around its axis. These images were used to create the videos of Mars.
Hence, we conclude that the viral video shows footage from Mars. The claim that it shows visuals of the moon captured by the Chandrayaan-3 is false.
