A Facebook social media account has published an image of the Sun and Moon on the horizon at close range, claiming it is a phenomenon seen in Argentina.
The image was accompanied by a caption that reads "UNBELIEVABLE ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENON IN TDF: THE SUN AND THE MOON MET ON THE HORIZON."
After verification of the facts conducted by hibrid.info, it has been proven that this claim is untrue.
Link to the image published by the "Skender Metaj" account:
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2705986809568336&set=a.457772391056467
Hibrid.info has found the article by the fact-checkers from Spain “Maldita.es”, which deals with this image distributed on social networks. (see here)
Two astronomy experts, Sergio Federico Castejón and José Padilla, told "Maldita" that the image "cannot be real."
Castejón said that the image being transmitted “cannot be real” because if the Moon were at that point on the horizon “it would be in the new lunar phase and, therefore, dark throughout its circumference, without reflecting light”. While Padilla said that the image “is not possible since the light we see from the Moon is that reflected from the Sun” so if the stars were in the same line on the horizon, as shown in the image, “the moon would not be seen”.
The article also explains that the same image has been circulating online since January 2022, claiming that this phenomenon occurred in Puna Arenas, Chile, which means that the image could not have been taken in Argentina.
Hibrid.info is covering this article after the same image was shared by an Albanian-language account.
Analyze:
Through an image of the Sun and Moon appearing on the horizon at a close distance from each other, a Facebook account claims that this phenomenon occurred in Argentina.
But hibrid.info, through research conducted, has proven that this claim is untrue, and according to astronomy experts, such a phenomenon, as seen in the image, is not possible.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info rates this article as "Unverified Content".
Reasoning:
The “Unverified” rating is given to those media reports that do not provide sufficient information to confirm the claims made in the report, and which have not been able to confirm the same due to the lack or non-possession of reliable sources.
The "Unverified" rating is given to those informative contents that do not provide sufficient information to confirm the claims made in the report, and which could not be verified due to certain circumstances (speed, lack of sources) during the publication of the content.