Computer-generated video of dramatic Moon explosion falsely shared as genuine
A computer-generated clip of a flying object colliding with a celestial body has been viewed millions of times in Indonesian-language social media posts that falsely portrayed it as genuine footage of an asteroid hitting the Moon. The Moon has very little atmosphere that stops space rocks from striking its surface, scientists at the US space agency NASA said. Clips of the phenomenon uploaded on the agency's website show them as brief sparks, rather than dramatic explosions.
"Asteroid hitting the Moon was recorded," read the Indonesian-language sticker text on a Facebook video uploaded on April 24, 2024, alongside a similar caption.
The short clip, which appears to show a flying object crashing into the surface of the Moon and exploding, has been viewed more than 2.1 million times.
A woman speaking in Indonesian can be heard in the background, saying: "Wow, a video of an asteroid hitting the Moon. That's scary."
The same video was shared alongside similar claims and viewed more than 680,000 times across YouTube, SnackVideo and TikTok.
Although some social media users expressed doubt about the authenticity of the video, many others left comments indicating they believed it was genuine.
"It's terrifying," one wrote.
Another said: "Imagine if it hits Kalimantan island, maybe the entire Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore could disappear from the earth."
Edited video
A reverse image search on Google found the same video uploaded to Instagram on September 21, 2023, credited to a user called diego.sinclair (archived link).
The video is captioned "Asteroid Hitting The Moon (CGI)".
Further keyword searches on YouTube found the original video uploaded by a channel called Diego Sinclair on Feb 25, 2023 (archived link).
The user often posts edited videos including those that show a flying saucer and an asteroid hitting Earth (archived links here and here).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the false posts (left) and Diego Sinclair's video (right), which shows the circulating clip has been mirrored:
In comments on the video, the user said it was created using video effects and that it was "just an edit", adding: "... the actual explosions don't look anything like this one. They're just bright flashes."
A 3D computer graphics software tool called Blender was used to create the dramatic video, the user told AFP.
According to NASA, the Moon has little or no atmosphere so space rocks have nothing to stop them from striking the surface (archived link).
Scientists at the space agency's Marshall Space Flight Center at the Automated Lunar and Meteor Observatory (ALaMO) in Huntsville, Alabama capture video of meteoroid strikes on the Moon several times a month (archived link).
In a video uploaded by the Marshall Space Flight Center, the lunar impact can be seen as small, bright flashes -- nothing like the mushroom cloud explosion in the edited video (archived link).
AFP has previously debunked edited videos shared as genuine celestial events here and here.
