Published 18:58 IST, June 23rd 2020
Fact check: Were two Suns spotted near the US-Canada border recently?
Social media saw a series of viral posts with a picture of two suns in the sky. Fact check on whether two suns were spotted near the US-Canada border recently.
- Fact-Check News
- 3 min read
Social media went in a frenzy recently when they saw the 'Two suns in the sunset' post doing the round all over the internet. And no, it is not the song by Pink Floyd's Roger Waters, but it is an actual picture of two suns over the horizon. The image that is being circulated is a collage of six images, each with different skylines, plus the image also claims that the phenomenon where one can see two sun-like bodies is called Moon Hunters or Hunter's moon.
This image became viral around the time of solar eclipse that was observed on June 21. It stated that this phenomenon happens when the earth changes its axis. It also states that the image shows the picture of the sun while the other one is the moon, so it looks like there are two suns in the sky.
Republic world did a fact check on 'two suns on US Canada border' news
- Republic World did a fact check and found that the claims of the post were False. It was found that such articles surface up every time there is a solar eclipse. The similar case was found when in January 2019, where two suns were claimed to be seen near the US-Canada border.
- Another article dating back to 2015 proves that this news is quite a few years old. It was when an article in Arabic illustrated the photos with two suns from Tunisia skyline.
- The phenomenon that the viral post is talking about is called Hunter's moon and it is just the phase when the moon appears red as a smaller amount of sunlight is able to reach the moon. Thus, the Hunter's Moon theory does not create an illusion of a duplicate sun in the sky.
- A phenomenon like Anthelion and Parhelion are also sometimes found responsible for causing effects similar to the appearance of two suns. Some also suggest that it can happen due to the refraction of the light on the camera lens or some photographs may also be morphed as well.
Google Trends
The picture of the two suns saw a great rise in the search volume as many people saw this post on the day of the Solar eclipse which was visible to some parts of the world on June 21. A Google trends analysis showcases that the maximum number of people searching about the same were on June 21 itself.
Image courtesy: Google Trends
Promo Image courtesy: Girish Sharma Twitter
Updated 18:58 IST, June 23rd 2020