No, This Isn’t What the Night Sky Looks Like on Mars
A fake video showing the “night sky on Mars” allegedly filmed by NASA’s Curiosity Rover has fooled thousands on TikTok and even a couple of news websites.
The TikTok account that the video has come from is called “nasa.curiosity” and its profile picture is even the NASA logo. But a quick check on the profile page states clearly that it is “not associated with any agency.”
Despite that, one edited video captioned “This is what the Night Sky on Mars looks like. 140 million miles away from us” has racked up an astonishing 21.2 million views at the time of writing and 2.6 million likes.
The video shows the Mars Curiosity Rover in the foreground with what looks like Mars’ surface. But the camera pans up to what is an obviously a fake sky filled with stars, planets, and galaxies.
While many in the comment section called it out for being fake, it is clear that many believe it is real or at least didn’t register it as a hoax. Worse still, a couple of news websites have published stories about the video without flagging that it is fake, including the Brobible and the Daily Caller.
The Curiosity Rover does frequently capture amazing images that NASA promotes. Last year, the Rover captured a unique portrait of Earth from 140 million miles away. But it looked decidedly less spectacular than the TikTok version.
In fact, it is Perseverance, the other NASA rover roaming the Red planet, that often captures more eye-catching images out of the two. Just last week, NASA released a stunning view of a Martian vista on a rare, clear sunny day.
While misinformation is rife across all social media, nowhere is it quite as rampant and unchecked as on TikTok, the only major Chinese-owned platform. Earlier this week, the White House officially joined TikTok six months after the app was supposed to be sold or banned in the United States.
PetaPixel approached the TikTok account masquerading as NASA for comment but did not hear back as of publication.
