No, this image is not by NASA satellite taken on Diwali night; Fact Check

Come Diwali, this image claiming it was from NASA taken from space to showcase India’s festival of lights goes viral. Usually, Diwali is marked by lights lit all over India on this auspicious day.

no diwali complete without this very authentic picture taken by NASA pic.twitter.com/AKqpGgLyoB

— Gul 🍉 (@sakkarabunnu) November 13, 2023

This year too, the viral image is being shared on social media with a satellite picture of India showing bright with lights all over. The claim says that it was Diwali lights glowing all over the country.

FACT CHECK

When Digiteye India team searched in Reverse Image Search of Google for the image, the results showed that it was actually an image of India’s demography showing the population over the years. Diwali lights are miniscule for satellites to be captured as shown in the image. And NASA did release a picture of Diwali on November 12, 2012 as shown here, which is entirely different:

Beautiful Photo released by NASA of India on Diwali. Looking like a Wow. Happy Diwali everyone pic.twitter.com/pm6OfLZ2L8

— Joy (@Joydas) November 12, 2023

NASA‘s image and caption reads: “The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite captured this night time view of southern Asia. The image is based on data collected by the VIIRS “day-night band,” which detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared. The image has been brightened to make the city lights easier to distinguish.”

Also, NASA has clarified that the extra lights produced during Diwali remained so miniscule when observed from space. In 2021, NASA had shared a tweet using this image and wishing everyone Diwali.

Happy #Diwali!

This photo was taken by @NASA‘s Suomi NPP satellite on Diwali in 2012, capturing an infrared view of South Asia on the evening of the holiday.

Learn more about how this image was taken: https://t.co/TjT4WH2Cxb pic.twitter.com/6SKW91JlxM

— NASA History Office (@NASAhistory) November 4, 2021

Hence, the original image is not taken on Diwali night but composed over decades taken by satellites.

Claim: India lit brightly on Diwali night as per the iamge taken by NASA satellite.

Conclusion: The image was composite of images to show demography over the decades and not taken by NASA.

Rating: Misleading —