Social media reports share a very detailed picture of the sun’s surface up close, with captions such as: “The clearest image of NASA’s sun.” However, the photo was not taken by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), but by a photographer who took the photos with his telescope.
Examples of jobs that make the claim can be seen here and here.
NASA images of the sun can be seen here and here. Although some of these images clearly show the solar surface, it does not look like the exact photo in these statements. Elizabeth Landau, senior communications specialist at NASA, confirmed to Reuters this is not an image of NASA.
One Twitter user responded to a tweet attributing the image to NASA, saying, ‘I’m the original creator of the content. This is a processed image using photos collected by my solar telescope in the backyard! ‘( here )
The user, named Jason Guenzel and using the handle @VastReaches on Twitter, also linked to another tweet from him from January 13, 2021 who shared the photo and read ‘This heavily software-processed image of the solar chromosphere reveals the intricate nature of the magnetic field within our star. Draw the thin line between science and art … maybe make it a little blurry. ‘( here ).
Guenzel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
VERDICT
Failure. This image of the solar surface was not taken by NASA.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to actually check social media posts.