First Photos of Earth Sent by Chandrayaan 2? No, It’s Fake News
The pictures are from before Chandrayaan-2 was launched on 22 July.
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CLAIM
Less than a week after ISRO’s lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 was launched, few images of earth from space went viral with the claim that they had the "first photograph of earth" from the spacecraft.
India's second lunar mission was launched on 22 July and performed its second earth-bound orbit maneuver on 26 July.
The claim shared with the image reads: "First photograph of earth, sent by Chandrayan 2..... What an eye-catching visual it is 👇 (sic)"
The Quint received a query on WhatsApp asking to verify the claim.
The pictures received along the claim were these:
The same claim was also widely shared on social media platforms like Facebook.
THE TRUTH
The claim made in the viral post is false as the images have not been clicked by cameras aboard the Chandrayaan-2.
WHAT WE FOUND
PICTURE 1
The image has been posted on multiple platforms over the years.
In a 2017 tweet by FayerWayer, the caption says “Antarctica seen from space by the @NASA.”
However, the comments on the tweets hinted that the image is an illustration from 2016.
On digging up further, an article from 2005 reveals that the picture is actually visualisation of data – a computer-generated image showing the extent of sea ice around Antarctica on 21 September 2005.
PICTURE 2
This picture as well is being circulated on internet since years now.
It was posted on imgur, an online image sharing community, in 2017 with a caption "NASA captures a picture of Guatemala's Fuego volcano erupting from space".
The Telegraph carried a story on photo gallery of 'Erupting volcanoes photographed from space' and according to that article the image taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) of a large plume of smoke, steam and ash erupting from the Sarychev volcano on the Kuril Islands, Russia.
PICTURES AVAILABLE ON INTERNET BEFORE CHANDRAYAAN-2 LAUNCH
All the rest of the pictures along the claim were also posted and circulated on internet before the launch of Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft.
One can find them on internet with a simple Google reverse image search.
The picture was carried by an article on a website called The Daily Galaxy published in 2019 and cannot be from Chandrayaan-2.
One can find this picture was posted in 2015 here.
The picture was posted on internet in March this year.
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