Allegation:
An actual photo taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) shows the solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.
Evaluation:
Context:
The photo is real but not taken by JWST or in 2024.
Perhaps the best part, other than seeing the total solar eclipse in person in real time, is looking at the absolutely stunning photos of it floating around social media.
After the eclipse that occurred in North America on April 8, 2024, Posts about X (formerly Twitter) went viral claiming that NASA’s own James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) had the best photo.
(X user @avenaim)
At the request of readers, Snopes investigated the origins of the photo. We are happy to confirm that the photo is real. However, it was neither captured by NASA’s JWST nor during the eclipse on April 8, 2024. Here’s what we learned:
First of all, we researched social media profiles We thought the scientists and astronomers who took the photo – from NASA and JWST – would be proud of the telescope’s capture and to share about this photo.
Count us out of this! Webb’s infrared optics detect extremely weak heat signals, and the Earth, Moon, and Sun are too bright and hot for us to look at them. That’s why we have sunshades: https://t.co/tTGIWqFAz8 https://t.co/wRTZNO4i6u
— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) April 3, 2024
Instead, we found posts from the official JWST X account explaining that the Webb telescope cannot look at the sun because it is designed to detect and display much weaker signals. JWST is specially designed with a sunshade to prevent sunlight from interfering with the instruments. This means the photo could never have been taken by Webb.
We then crawled the photo through reverse image search engines like TinEye and Google Lens, which gave us mixed results. While TinEye found no matches, Google Lens found a few matches, many of which we noted were released before the April 8 eclipse. So, in addition to not being from JWST, the photo is not of the 2024 North American sunshine. eclipse.
It actually shows a solar eclipse in North America; This is just an eclipse that occurred on August 21, 2017. Many of the links provided by a Google Lens search show that the image is from Dr. Dr., a filmmaker and astrophotographer. It is attributed to Sebastian Voltmer.
When we looked at Voltmer’s social media, we quickly confirmed that he took the original photo and that the best version of the photo came from his Flickr page. According to details provided in the Flickr thread, Voltmer captured the image with a telescope in Wyoming using a photographic technique called HDR, which combines several different images taken with different exposure lengths to capture the best detail in high light/dark contrast images.
When Voltmer shared the photo social mediarotated it 90 degrees to match the vertical aspect ratio.
Total Solar Eclipse HDR image taken with my D800 through the C80 ED refractor telescope.
Even with the naked eye, when I looked at the star Regulus, I could see the earth brightness (peripheral vision).Picture: @SeVoSpace
On April 8, the great total solar eclipse will pass the North… pic.twitter.com/DJYz8UjWPs
—Dr. Sebastian Voltmer (@SeVoSpace) April 6, 2024
When republished under the false claim that it was taken by JWST after the 2024 eclipse, the vertical version of the photo was mirrored and possibly filtered; This may be why reverse image search sites like TinEye have a hard time detecting it.
So no, the photo in question was not taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. However, don’t consider this a discredit on JWST’s limitations; instead, think of it as a tribute both to the telescope that has changed our perception of astronomical imaging since its introduction and to astrophotographers like Voltmer. He managed to capture an absolutely stunning photo from the Earth’s surface.
Resources:
“ABOUT.” Website: Dr. Sebastian VoltmerJuly 14, 2011, https://voltmer.de/about/.
Google Lens. https://lens.google.com/search?ep=gsbubb&hl=tr&re=df&p=AbrfA8pDj-eLtdBoFywOYPGl4J91aRHmjGVQqI3LFDW_ZIupy_e5ttLrKsKYze_-AezMBfFTUwqRZ8hQX7FML4bSZmY8Lq2cmLWfbZ6KeND01 zC 85cunVp2hz7JWn_ow7639FpB_UleoKfrwOVO4TSK08XvB9ZDzBEhF0E1JNExWlkJlqtuj5KKaOKtZy3tcDFgqCnkfcbKGJeMvq0NkMrcW1MvvApBFkG4TaqIKd537awA467LJlXf5f x5QVU3 EQXlOQz FoT0daakxUWTNOREkzTlRGaE9ESTJNUklmT0hsa1FrMDBOSFJZVDNkaGEwaDRiR3BST0hJemVEbEpSMWc0TnpkQ1p3PT0iLG51bGwsbnVsbCxbW251bGwsbnVsbCwiMy0zIixudWxsLDgwXSxbI mUwN2 NlYWFiLTI4YTUtNDJiMy04YjdiLTliZTI3MjIyMTEzMyJdXSxudWxsLG51bGwsbnVsbCxbbnVsbCxudWxsLFtdXV0=. Access date: 9 April 2024.
“https://Twitter.Com/Avenaim/Status/1777442521209282862/Photo/1.” X (Formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/avenaim/status/1777442521209282862/photo/1. Access date: 9 April 2024.
“https://Twitter.Com/NASAWebb/Status/1775629331357642755.” X (Formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/NASAWebb/status/1775629331357642755. Access date: 9 April 2024.
“https://Twitter.Com/SeVoSpace/Status/1776736821617319995.” X (Formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/SeVoSpace/status/1776736821617319995. Access date: 9 April 2024.
instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/C5b41osy-C2/?hl=tr. Access date: 9 April 2024.
Solar Shield Webb/NASA. https://webb.nasa.gov/content/observatory/sunshield.html. Access date: 9 April 2024.
TinEye Reverse Image Search. https://tineye.com/search/ea998d3f04d504ce8c8ace8ca9be5800e321d6e0?sort=score&order=desc&page=1. Access date: 9 April 2024.
Voltmer, Sebastian. Corona World Light 2017. photo, September 6, 2017. Flickrhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/spacemovie/36659081780/.