Russian Outlet Claims NASA Took An Amazing, Totally True Image Of 3 UFOs

This is a public domain image showing the planet Mercury crossing our sun. (Photo: Pixabay)
This is a public domain image showing the planet Mercury crossing our sun. (Photo: Pixabay)

Whenever a story comes out claiming to show real pictures or video of UFOs, hope springs eternal that maybe, just maybe, this might be that elusive smoking-gun evidence of alien technology.

Not a day goes by, either, without something in the news questioning the honesty of certain Americans or Russians. Now it seems that UFOs have been added to that media storm.

The innocent image above is from a collection called Pixabay, which offers many free stock photos to use for practically anything you’d like. This one shows our sun with a circular black dot, reportedly the planet Mercury, making a transit across our home star.

Still, how would Pixabay feel if a Russian news site, Pravda.ru ― ironically, the name means “truth” ― took that same picture, added two more black dots, called them all UFOs and claimed this was, in fact, a picture captured by a NASA “STEREO spacecraft”?

Wow!

If you compare the two images, it doesn’t take long to figure out that the sun in the two pictures is identical and all that Pravda.ru did was finish it off with two more “UFOs” and a headline that reads: “NASA spacecraft captures three huge UFOs silhouetted against the Sun.”

That deserves another “Wow!”

When HuffPost reached out to a NASA spokesman to comment about all of this, he said, “I’m not aware of this photo being released. Certainly not from NASA. There is no official or unofficial NASA posting of the image.”

For what it’s worth, this isn’t the first time that UFO charlatans have tried to convince the public that extraterrestrial ships are getting a little too close to our sun.

Here’s a video of an alleged alien ship refueling, according to a source that is definitely not NASA:

NASA generally has well thought-out explanations for these types of “UFO” incursions into our solar system.

For its part, Pravda.ru, which is separate from the Communist Party paper, has a history of extremely creative “journalism.” But the truth is out there.

Just not Pravda.ru’s truth.

Also on HuffPost

Mercury

The sun as seen from Mercury, which is about 36 million miles from the sun or 39 percent of the distance from Earth to the sun. On Mercury, the sun looms about three times larger than it does on Earth.
The sun as seen from Mercury, which is about 36 million miles from the sun or 39 percent of the distance from Earth to the sun. On Mercury, the sun looms about three times larger than it does on Earth.

Venus

The sun as (almost) seen from Venus, which is about 67 million miles from the sun (72 percent of the distance from Earth to the sun). Seen from beneath Venus’ dense, sulfuric acid-laden clouds, the sun is no more than a dimly glowing patch in the perpetual overcast. If it could be seen, it would be about half again larger than it appears in Earth’s sky.

Earth

Earth is 93 million miles from the sun. At this distance, the sun covers an area in the sky about half a degree wide. The moon covers the same area. This means that when the moon passes between the sun and our planet, we are treated to a solar eclipse like the one shown here.
Earth is 93 million miles from the sun. At this distance, the sun covers an area in the sky about half a degree wide. The moon covers the same area. This means that when the moon passes between the sun and our planet, we are treated to a solar eclipse like the one shown here.

Mars

The sun as seen from Mars, which is about 142 million miles from the sun. Since Mars is one-and-a-half times farther from the sun than Earth is, the sun appears correspondingly smaller in the planet’s dusty sky.
The sun as seen from Mars, which is about 142 million miles from the sun. Since Mars is one-and-a-half times farther from the sun than Earth is, the sun appears correspondingly smaller in the planet’s dusty sky.

Jupiter

The sun as seen from Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. Jupiter is about 484 million miles from the sun, or about 5.2 times farther than the distance from Earth to the sun. Here we see Jupiter about to eclipse a sun five times smaller than the one we see from Earth. Sunlight passing through the planet’s dense atmosphere illuminates it in a ring of red light.

Saturn

The sun as seen from Saturn, which is about 888 million miles from the sun. That's about 9.5 times farther than the distance from Earth to the sun. Here, crystals of water and gases including ammonia refract the sunlight, creating beautiful optical effects such as haloes and sundogs. Although sunlight is about 100 times dimmer on Saturn than on Earth, the sun would still be far too bright to look at without eye protection.

Uranus

The sun as seen from Ariel, one of Uranus's moons. Uranus is about 1.8 billion miles from the sun, or about 19 times farther than the distance from Earth to the sun.
The sun as seen from Ariel, one of Uranus's moons. Uranus is about 1.8 billion miles from the sun, or about 19 times farther than the distance from Earth to the sun.

Neptune

The sun as seen from Triton, one of Neptune's moons. Neptune is about 2.8 billion miles from the sun. That's about 30 times farther than the distance from Earth to the sun. Clouds of dust and gas spewing from one of Triton's powerful cryogeysers are partially obscuring a tiny sun, now but one-thirtieth the size as seen from Earth.
The sun as seen from Triton, one of Neptune's moons. Neptune is about 2.8 billion miles from the sun. That's about 30 times farther than the distance from Earth to the sun. Clouds of dust and gas spewing from one of Triton's powerful cryogeysers are partially obscuring a tiny sun, now but one-thirtieth the size as seen from Earth.

Pluto

The sun as seen from Pluto, which has an <a href="http://www.universetoday.com/44534/plutos-distance-from-the-sun/" target="_blank">average distance from the sun</a> of about 3.7 billion miles. That's about 40 times the distance from Earth to the sun.&nbsp;From here, the sunlight is 1,600 times dimmer than on Earth. Still, that's 250 times brighter than a full moon here on Earth -- bright enough to outshine every other object in the sky and hard to look at directly.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.