Nasa

Does a photo show mining operations extracting "lithium for electric cars," as a meme on Facebook claimed? No, that's not true: According to the Utah Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining, the image is of the Rio Tinto Kennecott mine in Magna, Utah, where no lithium mining occurs. The agency confirmed that the "image is false." The Rio Tinto mine…

Does footage on social media show Palestinians celebrating at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem after they heard news of Iran's mid-April 2024 aerial attack on Israel? No, that's not true: The video was shot days before Iran launched drones and missiles against Israel. The video was recorded during the last Friday of Ramadan, according to a BBC reporter. Lead Stories…

Is it impossible for women to snore? No, that's not true: Besides no evidence to support that claim, a sleep medicine expert told Lead Stories, "Women are equally likely to snore compared to men." Statistics from the National Sleep Foundation and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine do show that more men than women report snoring but snoring affects both…

Is an image showing a dramatically swirling and sparkling corona over a wooded hillside a real photo of the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse? No, that's not true: The AI detection tool from Hive Moderation rated this image as having a 99.8 percent likelihood of being AI-generated. Practical photography considerations also expose this as an impossible photo. Both a…

Does a viral image on social media show the 2024 solar eclipse? No, that's not true: The photo appeared online almost seven years before the April 9, 2024, solar event. It was taken by an astrophotographer who captured the previous eclipse that was seen in North America. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook where it was…

Does a photo show the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse? No, that's not true: The image is from the 2012 solar eclipse taken near Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, as the original photo, found on the website Flickr, says. It does not show an image of the sun blocked by the moon during the April 8, 2024, solar eclipse. The…

Is NASA keeping vintage cars in a parking lot to prepare for an electromagnetic pulse "blast"? No, that's not true: The vehicles shown in a questioning video on social media were part of a movie titled "Fly Me To The Moon" which was filmed at a NASA facility. There were several images taken of the location during production of the…

Does a solar eclipse not involve the moon blocking out the sun? No, that's not true: Experts at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) -- an agency that has landed spacecraft on the moon -- describe a solar eclipse as that rare moment when the moon passes between the sun and Earth, blocking the face of the sun. The…

Does a video of two jet aircraft passing in opposite directions show that one is producing a contrail and the other is producing something else -- perhaps a mythical "chemtrail"? No, that's not true: Both planes are producing contrails. The length of the jet's contrail, which consists of mostly water vapor, depends on atmospheric conditions and does not indicate something…

Will the sun and moon not be in alignment on April 8, 2024, because the heavenly bodies are "in the wrong place" astrologically? No, that's not true: A video on TikTok making this claim is misleading on three points -- the alignment of the sun and moon during a total eclipse, the function of an app called SkyView and the…