Fact check: Viral video of large moon rising is a digital creation, not view from North Pole

Dezimey Kum, USA TODAY
·3 min read

The claim: A video captured from the North Pole shows the moon eclipsing the sun

Numerous social media users have shared a close-up video they claim shows an oversized moon rising over the North Pole and eclipsing the sun.

“The moon is in the North Pole, where the day lasts 24 hours and the moon appears in only 30 seconds completely and blocks the sun for only 5 seconds and then disappears, a breathtaking view,” reads the April 26 tweet, which generated more than 300,000 likes and 60,000 retweets.

An April 27 Facebook post also shared the video and garnered more than 100 shares within two days.

But, the video is an animation. It was created by Aleksey Patrev, a computer graphics artist based in Ukraine. Social media users should also be tipped off by the clip's foreground of dry grassland, given that the North Pole is covered in ice.

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USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook and Twitter users who posted the claim for comment.

Video is computer-generated

The video can be linked back to Patrev's social media accounts, which feature the use of computer-generated imagery.

Patrev has posted several animations similar to the moon rising video on his social media accounts. In May 2021, the video first circulated on TikTok and on YouTube called "Supermoon."

The extensively manipulated footage depicts unrealistic natural events.

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The consequences of the moon moving closer to Earth, as seen in the video, would be disastrous, according to Live Science. Gravitational forces would increase, causing higher and lower tides and flooding of low-lying coastlines. Natural disasters would also be triggered by the rapid increase in gravity.

The contents of the video also conflict with the purported setting. The Facebook post claims the video shows the North Pole, but the footage shows a dry grassland in the foreground. The National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service's satellite footage of the North Pole reveals there is no land. The North Pole is located in the Arctic Ocean, where it is surrounded by continually shifting sea ice, according to National Geographic.

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that a video shows the moon rising in the North Pole. The video is computer-generated and depicts a landscape that looks nothing like the ice-covered North Pole.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Viral video of large moon rising is a digital creation