Fact Check: Video Depicting South Pole Of Moon Created With AI Tool By Mixing Visuals Of Mars Shared By NASA

New Delhi Vishvas News – After the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the lunar surface, the Pragyan Rover has commenced its operations on the lunar terrain. The rover is continuously transmitting images and videos of the Moon, which are being made accessible to the public by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). In this context, three different videos are being circulated, claiming to depict live images of the Moon’s South Pole.

Vishvas News, in its investigation, has determined this claim to be false. The viral video is, in fact, a compilation of three distinct videos. The initial video has been generated with the assistance of an AI tool, and it is spreading with deceptive assertions associating it with Chandrayaan-3. Conversely, the second and third videos are recordings from the rover deployed on Mars by the American space organisation NASA. Videos and photographs pertaining to Chandrayaan-3 are available on ISRO’s official website and its official social media platforms.

What’s going viral?

While sharing the viral video, social media user ‘Bhuwanesh Sharma’ wrote, “Live photo of the south pole of the Moon #Chandrayan3.ThanksISRO.” Several other users have also shared the video with the same claim. Several other users on different social media platforms have also shared the same video with a similar claim.

Investigation

– First video Investigation

Google’s reverse image search, conducted by extracting key frames from the viral video, discovered a video that was uploaded approximately three months ago on a YouTube channel called ‘University of Aberdeen’. This video showcases the creation of Meta’s AI tool SAM.

The visuals featured in the viral video can be observed starting from the 0.30-second frame of this aforementioned video. As per the information provided, “The team of researchers from the University of Aberdeen has developed a Universal Crater Detection Algorithm (CDA) with the assistance of Meta AI’s Segment Anything Model (SAM).” It is evident that the video circulating under the name of Chandrayaan-3 has been generated with an AI tool.

– Second video Investigation

Through a Google reverse image search of the key frames from the viral video, we came across this video on the same channel, which was uploaded two months ago. According to the provided information, “This is an image captured by MAHLI on NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity.” Furthermore, we have located the original image on NASA’s website.

Third video Investigation

A reverse image search of the key frames from the viral video led us to a video uploaded almost a month ago on the ‘SoM ET’ YouTube channel. This video represents an extended version of the viral video. According to the provided information, the visuals featured in it are exclusively from NASA’s Mars mission. This image is also accessible on NASA’s website, captured by the Perseverance Rover on Mars.

Additionally, the visual content at the end of the viral video does not correspond to any imagery transmitted by the Pragyan Rover of Chandrayaan-3 thus far. To gather more insights into these viral videos attributed to Chandrayaan-3, we reached out to aerospace expert Girish Linganna. He affirmed that all videos and images related to Chandrayaan-3 are exclusively released on ISRO’s website and its official social media handles.

The profile of the user who shared the viral video with the false claim has been active on Facebook since April 2013. Approximately 6,000 people follow this profile on Facebook.