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| - Fact Check: Sorry Mr Amitabh Bachchan, Nasa doesn't have a rain cloud generator
Amitabh Bachchan fell for a video which claims that Nasa has developed a rain cloud generator for instant shower.
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India Today Fact Check
Nasa has not developed rain cloud generator; the video Bachchan shared shows test-firing of rocket engines.
Like everybody else in India, veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan too is eagerly waiting for rains to calm down the sweltering heat. But longing for a magical solution for rains, he fell for a video which claims that Nasa has developed a rain cloud generator for instant shower. As expected, the video he shared spread like wildfire. And it turns out that the video is old and misleading.
... can we get one in India .. I mean right now .. RIGHT NOW .. PLEASE !! https://t.co/pTRI8r4VsK Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) June 26, 2019
India Today's Anti-Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the video has been created by combining clips from two different rocket engine tests by Nasa. It certainly is not a machine to generate rain clouds.
The archived version of the tweet can be seen here.
In the viral video, the first few seconds show a giant machine continuously emitting something that looks like clouds or white coloured smoke. Later in the video, an anchor appears and talks about clouds emitted by the engine. This 59-second video ends with 'rains' from these clouds.
AFWA has found that the machine which generated artificial clouds in the viral video is actually a space shuttle engine tested by Nasa in Mississippi, United States.
In fact, the viral video has been created by combining clips from two different rocket engine tests by Nasa.
The first few seconds of the video show the test-firing of an RS-25 engine and the rest is from a BBC television series called "Speed", aired in 2001. Hosted by English broadcaster Jeremy Clarkson, the footage shows test-firing of an RS-68.
Both engines were tested at Nasa's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi at different times. But this is not the first time that this video is going viral with the same claim.
The Verge did a fact check of this video last year when it was being widely shared as a machine to make artificial clouds.
The clipping of the BBC show "Speed" from which the clip has been picked up can be seen here.
Some users have referred to a fact check article by Forbes in the comments section of Bachchan's tweet.
WHAT ARE RS-25 AND RS-68 ENGINES?
The RS-25 engine is a liquid-fuel cryogenic rocket engine that was used on Nasa's space shuttle. It will be used to power space shuttle's successor, the Space Launch System (SLS).
The Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-68 is a liquid-fuel rocket engine and is the world's most powerful hydrogen-fuelled rocket engine. It was used in the Delta IV family of rockets. None of these engines can generate rain cloud.
CAN THIS MACHINE REALLY BRING RAINS?
Yes, because what you see coming out like clouds are actually a huge amount of water vapour. When the vapour get colder in a similar environment, rains could occur in nearby areas as happened in this case. But this is kind of a side effect of the engine test.
IS IT POSSIBLE TO CREATE RAINS ARTIFICIALLY?
It is possible to get rains by a process called cloud-seeding.
It is a weather modification technique that is done by spraying chemicals such as dry ice on rain-bearing clouds. The process has been partially successful but is quite expensive.
Cloud-seeding has been tried in many countries including India. In 2017, the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology conducted a cloud-seeding programme named "Varshadhare" in Karnataka.
The study showed that cloud-seeding can bring rains but only if weather conditions support.
However, so far, no country has been able to develop a machine which can make artificial clouds.
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