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| - Fact Check: This viral image is not of an asteroid that passed Earth in December
A photograph of a green streak of light in the night sky over mountains has gone viral, with the claim that it is an asteroid that narrowly avoided colliding with the Earth this month. India Today Anti-Fake News War Room ( AFWA) has found that the viral image is that of a meteorite photographed six years ago.
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India Today Fact Check
It is true that three asteroids went past earth between November 29 to December 17 this year, but the viral image is that of a meteorite photographed six years ago. Photographer Prasenjeet Yadav was taking pictures in the Western Ghats in 2015 when his camera accidentally caught a green streak of light across the night sky.
A photograph of a green streak of light in the night sky over mountains has gone viral with the claim that this is an asteroid that just missed hitting the earth this month. The viral post claims the picture was taken in India.
Multiple Facebook users posted this image with the caption saying, “This is that asteroid that just missed earth about a day ago, in the skies over India”.
India Today Anti-Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that it is true that three asteroids went past Earth between November 29 to December 17 this year, but the viral image is that of a meteorite photographed six years ago. Photographer Prasenjeet Yadav was taking pictures in the Western Ghats in 2015 when his camera accidentally captured a green streak of light across the night sky.
AFWA Probe
With the help of reverse image search, we have found the viral image on the website of National Geographic. This picture was published in an article in 2017 where it was used as a cover image.
The caption of the photograph reads, “A rare green meteor appears above the sky islands of India's Western Ghats mountains.” The name of the photographer mentioned in the article is Prasenjeet Yadav.
The same image was also published on the website of an American magazine “Wired”.
As per this article, Prasenjeet Yadav had “won a National Geographic Young Explorers grant to document "sky islands," the isolated mountain peaks that rise above the clouds along a 400-mile swath of the Western Ghats.”
On October 9, 2015, Yadav set up his camera on the mountains of the Western Ghats to click the landscape and skies at night. He set the camera up to take 15-second exposures every 10 seconds until 4:30 am.
The next day, after reviewing all the photos his camera had clicked, he found this amazing photo of a green streak of light across the night sky.
In 2019, Yadav posted this photograph on Instagram and wrote, “This is definitely one of the most memorable shot I have ever taken and also the first image that NG published back in 2016!! This Green Meteor was captured while taking a time-lapse to document the urbanization around the Sky islands southern in India.”
Asteroids and Meteoroids
As per the NASA website an asteroid is a small rocky object that orbits the Sun. Asteroids are smaller than a planet, but they are larger than the pebble-sized objects we call meteoroids.
But meteoroids, meteors and meteorites are all related to the flashes of light called “shooting stars” sometimes seen streaking across the sky. We call the same object by different names, depending on where it is. When they are in space, they are called meteoroids. When they enter Earth’s atmosphere, they are called meteors. When a meteoroid survives a trip through the atmosphere and hits the ground, it’s called a meteorite.
Scientists estimate that about 48.5 tons (44,000 kilograms) of meteoritic material falls on the earth each day, but almost all the material is vapourised in the planet’s atmosphere. Taking photographs of a meteor shower is quite difficult and often depends on luck.
In an email exchange with USA Today, Prasenjeet Yadav confirmed that he had taken this photograph in 2015.
Hence, it can be concluded that the viral image is six years old and is not from the recent activity when asteroids passed earth this month.
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