New Delhi: A 30-second video, purportedly from the Arctic and showing a giant Moon eclipsing the Sun, went viral on social media Wednesday.
In the video, the Moon appears at a very close distance from the surface of the Earth, before eclipsing the Sun and causing a moment of darkness, and fades below the horizon.
Many users shared the video claiming it to have been shot in the Arctic between the territorial claims of Russia and Canada.
Imagine sitting in this place
during the day (between Russia
and Canada in the Arctic).
The moon appears at this size
and then disappears in about
30 seconds and blocks the sun
for five seconds ….on its way !
Glory be to God Almighty !#LunarEclipse2021 #LunarEclipse pic.twitter.com/voH7B2btCj— Arun Deshpande (@ArunDeshpande20) May 26, 2021
Imagine sitting in this place during the day (in between Russia and Canada in the Arctic) when the moon appears in this big size for 30 seconds and blocks the sun for 5 Seconds then disappears…Glory to God's own creation. pic.twitter.com/vw6CunJZTe
— Mike Sonko (@MikeSonko) May 26, 2021
Inspector General of Odisha Police Amitabh Thakur also shared the video with his 27,000 followers, claiming it to be from the North Pole. While he has since deleted the post, it had been retweeted over 3,000 times and had nearly 10,000 likes.
On Wednesday night, people around the world were waiting for a cosmic event known as a super blood moon when a full lunar eclipse coincides with a supermoon — when the Moon appears brighter and closer to Earth. As the Moon moves fully into Earth’s shadow, it appears to turn red for about 15 minutes.
The Super Flower Blood Moon early Wednesday morning was visible all over the globe — and brought some areas their first total lunar eclipse in nearly 2.5 years.
If you missed it, here are some views from around the world.https://t.co/0DYiEKc82x pic.twitter.com/1EAIqPSMsY
— NPR (@NPR) May 26, 2021
The crew aboard the @Space_Station observed today's supermoon and lunar eclipse! @JAXA_en astronaut @Aki_Hoshide captured photos from orbit ⤵️ https://t.co/fX4X9hUsrw
— NASA (@NASA) May 26, 2021
Fact check
The video appears to be an animation made by a user, Aleksey___nx, on TikTok. The artist also recently made a “UFO over the moon” video, which went viral and was shared by high profile users and media outlets.
Artist found. Aleksey___nx on TikTok. They made one viral UFO animation recently so I decided to check their other videos. https://t.co/P5sYUMOkv2
— HoaxEye (@hoaxeye) May 26, 2021
OK, what are those?! pic.twitter.com/3k4rSH5bQz
— RT (@RT_com) May 22, 2021
However, even without the source, it is easy to identify that the video is computer generated.
The Moon has an average distance of 238,000 miles (382,900 km) to the Earth. However, its orbit around the Earth is not a perfect circle and at times it is particularly close. At perigee — the closest point — the Moon comes as close as 225,623 miles (363,104 kilometers). At apogee — the farthest point — the Moon is 252,088 miles (405,696 km) away.
During full moons or blood moons, many photographers zoom into the Moon against a distant object in the foreground, so that it appears bigger in comparison to buildings or trees. However, the angle in the current video appears to make it look close enough to nearby objects.
However, the Moon does not get as close to the Earth as displayed in the video, when viewed from such a close location without apparent zoom. In the clip, there is also no reflection of the Moon in the lake below.
The Moon also appears too bright for it to also be visible when the Sun is out.
It also does not rotate on its axis in the video, and as it passes the camera to the opposite side, the far side of the Moon is seemingly visible. This is not possible as the Moon is tidally locked to Earth, and we can only see one face of the Moon at all times.
Also, while the video is claimed to be from the Arctic region between the territorial claims of Russia and Canada, the grassland area seen in it suggests it is from a different terrain than the snowy Arctic.
In collaboration with SM Hoaxslayer
Also read: Vaishakha Purnima coinciding with lunar eclipse this year recalls a 1400-yr-old battle
Thats so cool omg you always get it 99 bet we said 100 every day ooooooo wolfs love