Debunking Flat Earth Misconceptions
A hoax in flat-Earth circles claims that Earth in the Earthrise photo taken by Apollo 8 is identical to a similar photo taken by Apollo 11. In reality, they are clearly not identical at all.
It might have been caused by an error by an online source or someone trolling flat-Earthers. However, it demonstrates flat-Earthers’ lack of critical thinking, as it can be easily shown the claim is false by finding the originals from NASA’s image archive.
In a talk show, Conan O’Brien (the host) incorrectly said that he watched Buzz Aldrin (the guest) landed on the Moon. Buzz corrected him that what Conan saw was just an animation.
Flat-Earthers wrongly use Buzz’s statement as “evidence” that the landing was fake. In reality, Buzz informed Conan that news broadcasts of the landing used animations to give audiences a visual representation of the landing. They did not go to the moon in advance to set up cameras to report the landing.
Continue reading “Buzz Aldrin’s Interview with Conan O’Brien”
Apollo 11 landed on the Moon on July 20th, 1969 & returned to Earth on July 24th. Newspapers reported the landing on tomorrow’s edition, July 21st, 1969, with photos.
Flat-Earthers use the fact that the newspapers already had photos as “evidence” of deception. They claim the images should only be available after July 24th. The explanation is simple. The journalists took the pictures off the live television broadcast of the landing.
In today’s situation, it is analogous to taking a screen capture off a YouTube video, a simple task that even flat-Earthers themselves can accomplish.
Continue reading “Images in Newspaper Coverages of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing”
Operation Avalanche is a conspiracy thriller film released in 2016. It is of a deconstructive parody genre that assumes as if the Apollo moon landings did not occur and gives a fictional backstory on how secret agents managed to “fake” the moon landings.
Flat-Earthers took footage from the movie, then modified them to make them more convincing, and presented the result as if it is a recently discovered video on how the moon landings were “faked.” The video then spread in flat-Earth communities as a hoax.
Flat-Earthers and other conspiracy theorists incorrectly claim that the shadows in photos taken on the Moon in the Apollo missions are inconsistent. In reality, it is just due to their confirmation biases, and we can easily explain how the shadows were formed.
The perspective effect can cause parallel shadows to appear angled to each other and converge to a distant point. Conspiracy theorists incorrectly claim that non-parallel shadows can only be caused by a nearby light source.
Radio waves travel at the speed of light. In Apollo missions, after Houston said something, the response from the Moon arrived after 2½ seconds. But no delay occurred when Houston replied to the astronauts because the conversation was recorded on Earth.
Flat-Earthers use the lack of delay when Houston (and President Nixon) replied to the astronauts to discredit the Apollo missions. In reality, they cannot understand how the recording’s location and the direction of the conversation affected the delay in the recording.
Continue reading “Communication Delays in Apollo Mission & The Direction of Conversation”
The Apollo missions brought back moon rocks to Earth. Some of the moon rocks Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 brought back were gifted twice by President Nixon to 135 countries. In the Netherlands, both of these gifts are intact and preserved in a museum. However, there is another unrelated gift, in the form of petrified wood that was mistaken to be a moon rock for several years.
Flat-Earthers use the petrified wood incident to discredit the Apollo missions. In reality, the incident is not related to the two moon rocks that the United States officially gifted to the Netherlands, which are still displayed in Museum Boerhaave, Leiden.
Continue reading “Fake Moon Rock That Turns Out to Be a Petrified Wood”
Neil Armstrong was the lead photographer on the Apollo 11 mission, and he could not be in the photos he was taking. Out of 1266 photos from the Apollo 11 mission, only five good photos of Neil were taken while Apollo 11 operated on the surface of the Moon.
Some memes humorously compare the total of five photos of Neil on the Moon to the number of selfies some ladies take in the bathroom. Flat-Earthers took them too seriously, and these became a hoax claiming that Apollo 11 brought back only five photos.
Continue reading “Five Photos of Neil Armstrong on the Moon”
NASA lost the telemetry tapes containing the recording of the raw video data transmitted by the Apollo 11 mission. However, all the data was also safely recorded elsewhere.
Flat-Earthers make a big deal out of this incident to discredit the Apollo mission. In reality:
The Apollo Lunar Module needed to be as light as possible. It would also operate only in a vacuum and did not have to be sturdy or aerodynamic. To reduce weight, its hull was covered with various insulation blankets instead of rigid heat shields.
Flat-Earthers often ridicule the shape of the lunar module of being flimsy. In reality, there is no requirement to look pretty. The flimsy-looking things are just the insulation blankets. The actual hull underneath them provides structural support.
Earthrise is a photograph of Earth taken from lunar orbit during the Apollo 8 mission, seven months before the first Moon landing by the Apollo 11 mission. President Nixon hung a copy of Earthrise on the wall next to his desk in the Oval Office.
The picture of Earthrise was prominently visible during news coverage of President Nixon’s call with Apollo 11 astronauts on the lunar surface. Flat-Earthers find it strange Nixon already had the photo hung on the wall when the mission was still ongoing. These people are unaware that there are already several Apollo missions before Apollo 11, and Apollo 11 was only the first to land on the Moon.
Continue reading “Earthrise in President Nixon’s Oval Office”
Radio waves travel at the speed of light; it takes 1¼ seconds to cover Earth-Moon distance. It is the reason in the Apollo missions after Houston says something, the response from the astronauts on the Moon will arrive only after 2½ seconds.
Some presentations of the Apollo missions are edited to cut out the gaps created by the delay, and flat-Earthers use them to dismiss the Apollo missions as fake. However, in the actual audio recordings and the transcripts, the delays are there.
Flat-Earthers claim that the Apollo 11 astronauts were gloomy and uneasy at their press conference. They allege this was due to their guilt of faking the Moon landing. In reality, the press conference was full of jokes and laughter.
Unscrupulous conspiracy theorists cherry-picked a single photo from the press conference video in which the astronauts were serious. They abuse the picture to ignite our emotions and lead us to believe the hoax they created that the Moon landings did not occur.
Showing a photo or video from the Apollo Moon landings, then rhetorically asking “Who took or recorded this image?” is a common behavior exhibited by many flat-Earthers, as if there is no plausible answer, and only a conspiracy theory can possibly answer it.
In reality, there are simple answers to those questions. And it is very easy for anyone to find the answers.
