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Today's Most Inaccurate Headline Award

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
February 2, 2012
Filed under ,

NASA takes first ever video of dark side of the moon, Fox News
Keith’s note: Of course, video has been shot from lunar orbit before and there is no “dark side” of the Moon – all portions of the surface are dark or sunlit at one point or another depending on where the Moon is in its orbit. The only exceptions are some craters in the polar regions which have areas that are always “dark”. But if there actually was a “dark” side of the Moon, how would you be able to take a video of it? Alas, despite the inaccurate headline that some genius at Fox came up with, the article itself, written by Space.com’s Tariq Malik is completely accurate.

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

15 responses to “Today's Most Inaccurate Headline Award”

  1. Saturn1300 says:
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    Does making a long exposure of the dark craters,not set for lit areas,but only dark,does it show the interior?Is starlight enough?How about a lit rim?Does that supply enough light?How about light from Earth or Venus?On the same plane,I guess.Earth shine is enough to see a new  dark moon.The dark far side would have the same lighting as the dark craters.It is hard to believe in all the thousands of images,no one has taken an image of the far dark side of the Moon.How about it Dennis Wingo,have you released an image from LO of the far dark side?When it is dark of course.

    • tankmodeler says:
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      I’m not sure of your question here. These craters are lit by sunlight, like the rest of the moon is during each areas’ “day”. Photography of surface features during lunar night is as difficult as it would be on Earth and one would need longer exposures to get reflected light from wherever one could. During the far side’s night, however, the only light would be from reflected starlight as there would be no “Earthshine” on that side. It would be pretty darned dark.

      Paul

      • Paul451 says:
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        I think S13 was responding to this:

        ” The only exceptions are some craters in the polar regions which have areas that are always “dark”. “

      • Saturn1300 says:
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        Thanks.Sorry.I should have said polar.I saw an article that someone is going to take pictures using some sort of light that is there between stars.I expect them to look like all other craters,but would be interesting.Out at Neptune there are moons that are dark as coal,but they can image them like if they were local.The Milky Way should be enough and it is not on the Solar plane.If I had control of the cameras I would try the far side when it was dark.

  2. A_J_Cook says:
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    The NASA featured video is ambiguously titled “Grail Returns First Video of Moon’s Far Side.” I hope this was intended to mean that it is the mission’s first video of the moon’s far side…

  3. A_J_Cook says:
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    Nasa’s Featured Video is ambiguously titled “Grail Returns First Video of Moon’s Far Side.”

    I hope they meant the mission’s first such video.

  4. John Thomas says:
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    It’s not just Fox. If you do a google search, numerous other media have a similar titles including engadget and SlashGear although the SlashGear article refers to it as the far side.

  5. Anonymous says:
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    The first pictures of the back of the moon were returned to Earth by the Soviet probe Lunik 3 in October 1959. It took 30 seconds on a slow computer to check that.

    Fox News is an oxymoron.

  6. Patrick Judd says:
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    Funny semantics, hardly something to worry about on a slow news day.

  7. Steve Pemberton says:
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    The general public has always been confused on this topic. The Pink Floyd album title certainly didn’t help matters. Not that there was anything wrong with the album or the title it’s just that it helped cement an out of date name into the public consciousness. And since most people don’t know the historical reason for the term they assume it to be literally true. Articles like this one, once people get past the confusing headlines, can perhaps help to educate people.

  8. Dewey Vanderhoff says:
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    It’s why we call it Faux News.  They report…we deride.

    As if we need another snippet of evidence of the failure of public school science education.

    Having said that , no truer words were ever uttered than those by the  inmate at the end of Pink Floyd’s ” Dark Side of the Moon ” opus , when he groks ‘ there is no dark side of the Moon…matter of fact, it’s all dark…”. I’ve seen moon rocks. They are almost as dark as charcoal.

  9. hikingmike says:
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    The article says it’s from space.com. I found the article on space.com itself – http://www.space.com/14441-
    and it says far side not dark side. The titles of the articles are much different though which leads me to believe that Fox News wrote their own incorrect title for it.

    • Steve Pemberton says:
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      “which leads me to believe that Fox News wrote their own incorrect title for it.”

      See Keith’s note he already said that.

      Headlines are rarely written by the writer as far as I know, either in newspapers or in wire stories.  Each publication normally has people such as a copy editor that writes the headlines, although a wire service may include a suggested headline which is sometimes used.

      Headlines are more marketing than news, they are supposed to be eye catching (like Fox News female anchors)

  10. Anonymous says:
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    Meh.  Nothing is dark, unless it’s temp is 0K.  Just ask Mr. Planck.  We’ll have to  figure out exactly how dark matter fits into that.