These photos of the moon weren’t taken by Artemis II, they are AI or taken from Earth

As Artemis II sets records for human spaceflight’s farthest distance and captures photos of the moon, some social media users shared out of context and fabricated photos they claimed were from the event.  

The Artemis II mission, with a four person crew, launched April 1 with the goal of carrying astronauts farther from Earth and closer to the moon than any human has been in over half a century. 

Some photos on social media that claim to be from Artemis II show different angles of the moon, while others showcase the natural satellite full of vibrant colors.

"Stunning high-res Moon images from Artemis II," reads an April 6 X post with over 52,000 views as of April 8. "The lunar mare is surprisingly colorful."

A TikTok user also posted colorful photos of the moon, writing, "The pictures of the moon from #artemis2 are breathtaking! I was today years old when I learned the moon rocks were not just grey."

Another image in an April 7 X post that appears to be taken inside the Artemis II spacecraft shows the Earth rising from the moon's surface with the caption, "What a sight!!!"

PolitiFact found these photos weren’t taken from Artemis II or released by NASA. 

We contacted NASA to confirm the veracity of these images, and a spokesperson referred us to this press release that shows NASA’s Artemis II crew official moon flyby photos. None of the photos shown in the social media posts are featured in this press release or in the mission’s website. 

"If people are looking for images they are on nasa.gov and at the links provided in the news release," Jennifer Dooren, a NASA spokesperson, wrote in an April 8 email to PolitiFact.

(Screenshot of X post showing clip that has been circulating online since 2024)

These aren’t high resolution images of the moon from Artemis II

The 23-second clip from this X post doesn’t show high resolution images of the moon taken by Artemis II. 

When doing a reverse image search, we found the same first clip with the same soundtrack and similar photos to the ones in the X video had been shared on Instagram and Facebook in 2024. The photos are from a photographer who shot multiple photos of the moon in different stages from a telescope and merged the photos and its shadows together. 

The photographer said in an Instagram caption that the images show "what the moon looks like if it was a flat disk with mountains on it."

(Screenshot of a TikTok post showing an image from Earth, not taken from Artemis II)

Colorful and vibrant images of the moon aren’t from Artemis II

A TikTok user shared photos of the moon with color variations of light pinks, purples and oranges, saying the photos are from Artemis II. But they are enhanced photos of the moon taken by an astrophotographer.

Ildar Ibatullin confirmed to PolitiFact via Instagram that those are his images and they were captured from Earth using a reflector telescope and a DSLR camera, not taken by NASA or from the Artemis II mission.

"These images were processed from 50GB of raw data and have been available on my profile for several days," Ibatullin said. "Unfortunately, they have been misappropriated by various platforms to spread misinformation about the lunar mission." 

He said the colors in the image are vibrant because they are a result of "saturation enhancement" to reveal the moon’s "real mineral composition." 

(Screenshot of AI-generated image from an X post)

This photo of the Earth from the moon’s surface isn’t real

This photo shared on X showing the moon’s surface and the Earth rising was generated with artificial intelligence.

We ran the image through Gemini, Google’s AI model, which showed it contains a SynthID digital watermark. This is an invisible watermark for humans that indicates when an image or content was generated or edited using Google AI tools. 

Hours after posting the image, the user also responded to a commenter who asked whether the image was real. The poster said he didn’t think so. 

We rate claims that these photos and clips show the moon from Artemis II as False.