To err is human, to forgive divine. Well, since NASA is made up of mere mortals, it is not a surprise to know that they made a mistake over social media – through their Twitter account, in particular. NASA’s Twitter account has a respectable 12.1 million followers, and recently they put up a snapshot from NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who cited that the sun as well as the earth are shown off in the very same image. Well, a select bunch of space fans was outraged, citing that the bright object in question is actually the moon rather than the sun.
Emily Lakdawalla, planetary scientist and senior editor of The Planetary Society, mentioned, “Well, seeing as how stars and city lights at night are both visible in the field of view with the bright light source, it can’t possibly be the sun.”
I suppose there is room for a certain degree of confusion when it comes to identifying the sun and the moon whenever one snaps a photo from the vantage point of the International Space Station, but if there is a ‘true north’, so to speak, when it comes to identifying certain objects from up there, it would be the ability to see the stars in the sky when the sun is not out.