Does an Artemis II photo taken in April 2026 show the same cloud patterns as an Apollo 8 photo from 1968? No, that's not true: The "Artemis 2" image, dated April 6, 2026, is AI-generated and is based on the famous Apollo 8 photo known as "Earthrise." There are no official NASA photos from Artemis II that match the fake image.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) by the Space Voyager account on Facebook on April 6, 2026. It read:
April 6, 2026 Artemis II The Iconic Earthrise Moment Happens Again After 58 Years🌍🚀
On December 24, 1968, Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders photographed Earth rising over the Moon. Now, Artemis II retraced that journey and captured the same view decades later, the same emotion remains. 🌕📷✨
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by Space Voyager on Facebook.)
Both images in the social media post are versions of the "Earthrise" photo (archived here) from 1968, though each shows a different degree of AI editing or generation. Lead Stories ran each through Gemini, Google's AI assistant.
Apollo 8
For the "Apollo 8, December 24, 1968" labeled photo, the Gemini analysis (archived here) said:
This specific image is a cropped and vertically-oriented version of the famous 'Earthrise' photograph taken by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders on December 24, 1968. While the core subject is one of the most iconic historical photographs in existence, this particular digital file contains a SynthID watermark, which indicates that AI tools were used to modify, remaster, or generate this version of the image.
Many modern versions of 'Earthrise' have been digitally remastered using AI to improve clarity, remove film noise, or adjust colors for high-resolution printing. This file appears to be one of those AI-enhanced or digitally reconstructed versions.
The Hive Moderation AI-Generated Content Detection tool concluded the image was "likely to be: NOT AI-Generated" at just 14.1%, showing there was limited AI-editing of it:
(Image source: Hive Moderation.)
"Artemis 2"
This is what the Gemini analysis (archived here) said about the photo labeled "Artemis 2, April 6, 2026":
The image you provided has been identified as being mostly or entirely edited or generated using Google AI.
My analysis detected a SynthID digital watermark embedded in the image. SynthID is a tool developed by Google DeepMind that adds an imperceptible watermark to AI-generated or modified content to help with identification and transparency.
While the 'Artemis II' mission is a real NASA mission with genuine photographs, this specific version of the 'Earthrise' scene appears to have been created or significantly altered by AI.
The Hive Moderation AI-Generated Content Detection tool agreed and concluded the image was 100% "likely to be AI-generated":
(Image source: Hive Moderation.)
NASA
NASA has a gallery of images from the Artemis II mission, including a section (archived here) dedicated to the lunar flyby from April 6, 2026. None of the official images match the photo shown in the social media post. The photo (archived here) that comes closest is called "Earthset." It appears below:
(Image source: NASA.)
