This Image Doesn't Show Imprints of ISRO Logo and National Emblem on the Moon

This image of ISRO logo and India's national Emblem imprinted on the Moon's surface by Chandrayaan-3 is not real.

Fact-check: An edited image of the national emblem and ISRO logo is being falsely shared as an image showing imprints left by Chandrayaan-3 on the moon's surface.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

An image showing Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) logo and India's national emblem imprinted on a rough surface is going viral on social media.

• The claim states that this was imprinted by the tyres of Chandrayaan-3 rover on the moon surface.

• This comes after ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 successfully landed on the moon on Wednesday, 23 August.

An archive of the post can be seen here.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

(Archives of similar claims can be seen here and here.)

What is the truth?: This image is not real and created on Photoshop.

• ISRO has not shared any official images of the rover's imprints on the moon surface.

How did we find out the truth?: We noticed a name written on the left-bottom corner of the image. It read 'Krishanshu Garg'.

This was written on the viral image.

(Source: Altered by The Quint)

• Taking a cue, we looked for Krishanshu Garg's social media profiles and found his Instagram account.

• We did not find the viral image on his profile but found the same image in his story highlights.

• The story was uploaded before Chandrayaan-3 landed on the moon and it also carried a timer for the same.

The story was uploaded by Garg.

(Source: Instagram/Screenshot)

We reached out to him: Krishanshu Garg, a space enthusiast from Lucknow, who confirmed to us that this image was created by him using Adobe Photoshop.

• "I thought out of the box and made an edit of the imprints that Pragyan Rover will leave behind, as confirmed by ISRO and used it just as a countdown for landing," Garg said.

No official images of 'imprints' shared by ISRO: At the time of writing this story, ISRO has not shared any visuals showing imprints made by Chandrayaan-3 on the moon surface.

• ISRO has shared other updates and visuals taken by the Lander Horizontal Velocity Camera.

• One of the images also showed a portion of Chandrayaan-3's landing site.

Will Chandrayaan-3's rover leave such imprints?: According to reports, Chandrayaan-3's rover named Pragyan will leave imprints of the ISRO and the national emblem.

• However, no visual confirmation has been made by ISRO yet.

• ISRO shared a curtain raiser video of Chandrayaan-3, showing how the rover would leave imprints of the ISRO logo and the National Emblem. However, it looked different that the one in the viral image.

A link to the curtain raiser video can be found here.

(Source: ISRO/Screenshot)

• On 6 September 2019, ISRO shared the Chandrayaan-2 rover's details animated video, which showed (at the 2:45 timestamp) leaving similar imprints.

Conclusion: An edited image of the national emblem and ISRO logo is being falsely shared as an image showing imprints left by Chandrayaan-3 on the moon's surface.

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