I originaly wrote this post on “explain to me like am five” community. But it looks like i was banned from there because of that, despite having multiple answers on that post. So now im posting here to se if we can have open discusion here.

A couple of years ago i heard somwhere that there is no single photo of earth that is real. And i thought to myself wait i can check that emidietly.

So i went on google and was shocked that if you lookup closer realy every single one looks obviusly fake!

Today when i look at photos on the internet they still all look obviusly fake to me. There is not even a discusion about it.

So why do you think that is?

Is it that earth looks different than they are telling us or is it that there are no photos because nobody has ever been to space. Or meaby they do it on purpose for some reason? I have one theory in mind, but would like to hear what you think…

  • Panamalt@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    5 days ago

    We actually have hundreds of photos of Earth from space and more than a few astronauts that make it a full-time hobby to photograph our little blue marble. There is a perfectly reasonable explanation (two actually) for why those photos look fake, and while far more mundane, it doesn’t require the application of any ridiculous conspiracy theories.

    Explanation Uno: There isn’t anything in space like a pesky atmosphere to get the way of the camera lens and create distortions and imperfections. The result is images that look a little too crisp, a little too clean, and a little too colorful. They don’t look like the ‘normal’ images we are used to, so our brains tell us it’s wrong or fake. It’s called the uncanny valley, which is typically applied to images of people but it’s relevant to anything that breaks our normal just a little.

    Explanation Zwei: The images are actually fake, or rather they are false color images. Pictures are great, but it’s kinda hard to do a lot of science if all one ever does is look at the visible color spectrum, so we also take pictures in other spectrums like infrared, radio, or ultraviolet. However, since our pathetic human eyes can’t see those wavelengths, we have to recolor them to something we can see in the visible light range (hot things are colored blue, cold things are colored red, etc.). It’s not lying, it’s just better science.

    There are plenty of things in this world actually worth being concerned about, especially right now, but if none of this convinced you, let me ask you this; Why? Why would anyone fake every single photo of Earth ever taken from space? Why (or more importantly, how) would literally everyone agree to lie about going to space?