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Thread ID: 30955 2003-03-07 20:38:00 OT - HOAX = Columbia Europe Africa Photo Steve_L (763) Press F1
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126424 2003-03-07 20:38:00 In the last week I have received several emails with a stunning jpeg photo attached, supposedly taken from the Columbia . As I considered putting it on my desktop screen, I noticed that the ocean depths were shown, i . e . , the bottom topography . Duh . . . . . cannot be seen from above . Searching one of my favourite hoax busting sites, a hoax was revealed . Too bad, it was such a good story . Well, it is a great photo anyway .

Info below . . . . .

The URL for this page is . snopes . com/photos/sunset . asp" target="_blank">www . snopes . com

Claim: Photograph taken from the Space Shuttle Columbia shows sunset over Europe and Africa .

Status: False .

Origins: The contradictory explanations of this photograph's origins given in the accompanying text are the first clue that something's amiss here -- this image can't have been both "taken by the crew on board the Columbia" and "taken via satellite . "

Actually, the notation about this image's having been "taken by the crew on board the Columbia during its last mission" was added only after the fatal break-up of the Space Shuttle Columbia upon its re-entry on 1 February 2003 . Well before then, this picture had been circulating as a photograph "taken via satellite, on a cloudless day . "

Although this image does accurately depict the landforms described and the positioning of lighted cities to the right of the day-night terminator line, it doesn't represent an actual Earth view one might see from space . (The topography of the ocean floor would not be visible in a genuine photograph, for example . ) Real satellite images or data may have been used in its creation, but this photograph is either a composite formed by merging multiple images from different sources (the same technique used to create the stunning iceberg photograph), or a completely artificial picture generated by synthesizing data into a representative image .
Steve_L (763)
126425 2003-03-07 21:12:00 Have a look at this one Here (antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov) select high resolution

If you want more space images go Here (antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov)
Jim B (153)
126426 2003-03-07 21:26:00 > Have a look at this one
> He
> e (antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov) select high resolution

I've seen that one before - I had to do a Geography assessment based around it last year.
flyer590 (2523)
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