An image purporting to show imprints of the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) logo and the national emblem on the moon's surface is viral online as real. BOOM found that the image has been made using Photoshop and no such image has been shared by ISRO yet.
India became the first country to land on the moon's south pole and the fourth country in the world to land on the moon after Chandrayaan 3's Vikram lander rolled out on the moon's surface on August 23, 2023.
The image of the imprint is viral in this context. One caption on X (formerly Twitter) reads, "Image permanently imprinted on the surface of Moon today onward as Tyres of rover has this imprint, as there is no air on moon hence these marks will be forever." The same image is also viral on WhatsApp with the same misleading claim.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Click here to view the post.
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the image has been made using Photoshop and is not an actual photo of the imprint of ISRO's logo and national emblem on the moon's surface.
We looked at the photo closely and found a watermark with the text 'Krishanshu Garg' on the bottom left.
Taking a cue from this, we looked for Krishanshu Garg's X profile and found that he had shared the image on August 23 with the text, "Can't wait for this! 🌕🇮🇳"
Click here for an archive.
We reached out to Garg who confirmed that the photo was not real. Speaking to BOOM, he said, "I used Adobe Photoshop to make the image during the countdown (to the rover's landing). I shared it on my Instagram story and people mistook it for a real image. I didn't expect it to go viral."
Using reverse image search, we found a vector similar to the border of the imprint used in Garg's image on the website hiclipart.com.
Click here for an archive.
According to this post by Gujarat's Home Minister Harsh Sanghvi on July 14, 2023, the wheel of the Pragyan does carry an embossing of the national emblem and ISRO's logo.
The Pragyan rover, which was deployed from the Vikram lander's belly, is now conducting a 14-day assignment to further understand and explore the moon's surface.
We compared the embossing on Pragyan's wheel to the image of the imprint and found that they were not the same. While Pragyan's wheel carries the logo of ISRO and the national emblem on two vertical borders, the viral image shows the imprints in the middle of the two borders.