An old image of an irregularly shaped Moon pit has actually been shared consistently in Chinese social networks posts that incorrectly declared it was taken by China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe after it sent out samples back to Earth in June 2024. In reality, the image was taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and released by the United States area company in 2010.
“Stunning tricks of the far side of the Moon are exposed! Chang’e-6 returns pictures of caverns on the far side of the Moon,” checked out the streamlined Chinese title of a TikTok video published on June 4, 2024.
The video appears to reveal a picture of a pit on the lunar surface area.
The image appeared soon after the China National Area Administration launched pictures of the surface area of the Moon taken by its Chang’e-6 lunar probe on June 4, 2024.
The Chang’e-6 probe — part of Beijing’s enthusiastic program that intends to send out a crewed lunar objective by 2030 — ended up being the very first craft to effectively remove from the far side of the Moon on that day, bring samples back to Earth, state media reported.
The image of the Moon pit likewise appeared along with comparable incorrect claims it was taken by the Chinese lunar probe somewhere else on X, Weibo and Taiwanese media outlet Newtalk.
Comparable incorrect claims about the image distributed in Japanese, Spanish and Catalan.
In reality, the photo was taken by a NASA spacecraft and launched in June 2010, years before the Chang’e-6 probe was released.
NASA image
Keyword and reverse image searches on Google discovered the photo was initially launched by NASA in 2010, however was mirrored and after that turned 90 degrees clockwise (archived link).
According to NASA, the image was taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), the very first United States Moon objective in over a years, released in 2009 (archived link).
Below is a screenshot contrast of the image utilized in the incorrect posts (left) and the image launched by NASA (ideal):
The image is entitled “Depths of Mare Ingenii” — describing a unique geologic function discovered on the far side of the Moon. Its caption describes the irregularly shaped hole is an uncommon pit very first found by an earlier Japanese probe.
The pit displayed in the image can likewise be seen on a high-resolution picture of the Mare Ingenii released on the LRO’s site (archived link).
The site mentions the pit was most likely formed as an outcome of a partly collapsed lava tube.
AFP has actually exposed other false information that has actually appeared after the launch of the Chang’e-6 probe here, here and here.