A set of two videos are going viral on social media to claim that they show the moon's surface as captured by the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3.
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)
(Archives of similar claims can be found here, here and here. We also received a query about this on our WhatsApp tipline.)
What is the truth?: Both these videos do not show the surface of the moon nor was it captured by Chandrayaan-3.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) confirmed to The Quint that one of the videos is from their Mars Opportunity Rover project and dates back to 2007.
The second video is also from a NASA project namely, the Mars Curiosity Rover from 2014.
How did we find out?: On conducting a reverse image search on some of the keyframes of the video, we came across a similar picture on NASA's MARS Exploration Rovers Mission website dated 29 April 2007.
VIDEO 1
We found out that this image is related to Mars Opportunity Rover and it shows Mars' surface.
The rover was assessing a directional technique called "Field D-star" which helps the rover to outline optimum long-range drives around the hurdles.
The link to this information is here.
(Source: NASA/Screenshot)
We compared the keyframes of the viral video with the picture on the NASA website and found similarities.
(Swipe right to see the comparison.)
Here is a comparison between the viral video and image on NASA's website.
(Source: X/NASA/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)
The Quint reached out to NASA's social media manager, Stephanie L Smith who further confirmed that the viral video was a pan across the “D-Star Panorama” from the Opportunity Mars rover.
She also said, "Someone has added wind sound effects that were not gathered on Mars."
VIDEO 2
On NASA's website, we came across the same picture as the viral video dated June 2014.
The image was of the Mars Curiosity Rover project which was taken at the "Windjana Drilling Site."
Here is the link to the information about this project.
(Source: NASA/Screenshot)
We compared a key frame from the viral video with the original image and found major similarities.
Here is a comparison between the viral image and the original image.
(Source: Facebook/Nasa/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)
BBC reported on the Curiosity Rover's achievements on 13 April 2015 and used this picture in their story.
It mentioned that evidence for liquid water has been gathered on Mars.
Additionally, we did not find any such visuals posted by ISRO's official social media handles or website.
Conclusion: Clearly, both these videos are old and unrelated to ISRO's Chandrayaan-3.
(Note: The story has been updated to add NASA's comment and also add one more similar claim.)
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