There must be additional studio lights to explain this!Īctually, a rough, uneven surface can cause all sorts of shadows at different angles, even with a single light source like the Sun. If the Sun is the only source of light, why do some shadows appear to point in multiple directions? For example, in the picture to the side, the astronaut’s shadow matches up with the lander’s, but there seems to be another shadow from the lander foot pointing towards the astronaut. One of the subtler arguments against the Moon landings has to do with non-parallel shadows. Let’s talk about the shadows in photographs from the Moon. Astronauts on the International Space Station today regularly take photographs of the Earth that show a completely starless background, but it’s the same problem of contrasts at work.įor more information, read this blog from astrophysicist Brian Koberlein or astronaut Tim Peake’s response to this question in his FAQs. The human eye can adjust and pick out the stars, but unless it’s set to the right settings, a camera struggles with the contrast. This brightness drowns out the relatively dim light from stars in the dark sky, akin to how car headlights can drown out the fainter light from nearby objects. The surface of the Moon reflects the strong sunlight and appears very bright in photographs. Speaking of the flag photographs, it’s often pointed out that there are no stars to be seen in the background! This is actually a common feature of photographs from space, where the contrast between light and dark is extreme. And why can’t we see stars in the pictures? There’s a huge amount of footage of the flags stood on the Moon in exactly the same position. This is because when the astronauts were planting it, they rotated it back and forth to better dig into the lunar soil, which of course made the flag ripple as it swung like a pendulum- without a breeze. In video footage of the flag being planted into the Moon’s surface, it also appears to wave back and forth. The flag was disturbed as it was planted into the ground and kept this bent shape because of the lack of strong gravity on the Moon.

There is a horizontal rod projecting from the post at the top of the pole to hold the flag unfurled. But hold on a minute! There’s no air on the Moon so how can it flutter?! The truth is that the flag isn’t flapping. From photos and video, it appears to be flapping in the wind. You can work through all the maths of the estimated radiation levels, along with some helpful answers, in this NASA Education worksheet here.įor more information see this excellent blog from Vintage Space.Īnother ‘giveaway’ that the landing was faked comes from the footage of the American flag that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin placed on the Moon. There can still be some adverse effects from even this level of radiation, so NASA made sure that the Apollo 11 spacecraft was well-insulated such that the average dose of radiation over the 12-day mission was just 0.18 rads, or similar to the radiation dosage from a chest X-ray. The Apollo 11 crew were within the belts for less than two hours during their journey to the Moon, and so would have only been exposed to an estimated 18 rads – well within the safe limit. Radiation sickness occurs when you have been exposed to around 200 to 1000 ‘rads’ of radiation within a few hours. Luckily, the timings of the Apollo launches were such that the Van Allen belts were at their lowest intensity, which fluctuates with the Sun’s activity. In fact, the international scientific community was aware of the Van Allen belts thanks to the Explorer, Pioneer, and Luna missions in the 1950s. It’s been claimed that humans couldn’t have passed through these belts without being fried with lethal doses of radiation. These are two huge belts of radiation that surround the Earth, shaped by the Earth’s magnetic field and pounded with high-energy particles from the Sun’s wind. One of the most popular theories as to why the Moon landings couldn’t have happened has to do with something called the Van Allen belts. Wouldn’t the Van Allen belts have fried the astronauts?

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