Identifying: faked image of Earth from space (artwork, not "official")

Trailblazer

Moderator
Staff member
This image is being shared by flat earthers, often with the claim that it is an official NASA image, presented as a real view of the Earth from space. Clearly, it's not a real image, as it has repeated and mirrored cloud formations, and the lighting and shadow directions are all wrong.

upload_2016-9-14_12-24-54.png

But I thought I'd try to find out where it actually comes from.

A search on Tineye finds hundreds of hits on wallpaper and stock photo sites, and none whatsoever on NASA sites.

upload_2016-9-14_12-26-53.png

I then tried searching for just half of the image, to see if I could find the unflipped original, but with no success.

So then I tried an image search for "hurricane from space", and found this, which is clearly the source of the manipulated image:

upload_2016-9-14_12-28-23.png


This eventually led to this Getty Images photo:

http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/earth-from-space-royalty-free-image/ST000349



Which is a Stocktrek Images photo: http://www.stocktrekimages.com/results.asp?image=STK200656S&itemw=4&itemf=0007&itemstep=61&itemx=61

However I haven't been able to find the ultimate source of the image, or even whether it is a real photograph.
 
I just skimmed through a post-flight video presentation of that mission but didn't see the photo in question.

Did see some nice shots of the (curved) earth, though - and a very groovy experiment with bubbles of lemon and strawberry drinks:


(13:52)
 
Back
Top