When the Apollo astronauts landed on the moon, they left behind traces including footprints, flags and equipment. Some social media users say you can see, or should be able to view, such telltale signs from our planet. This is false. No earthbound telescope is capable of seeing things that small on the moon's surface.
Some claim online that by using a telescope on Earth, one can see lunar modules, rovers and tire tracks from the historic July 1969 moon landing and other missions.
Others cite the inability to see such things as proof the landings were elaborate hoaxes, but there is plenty of evidence from experts that people did go to the moon. For instance, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured images of foot trails and tire tracks at landing sites.
Even so, one on Twitter, which is in the midst of a rebrand to X, reads: "If you have a powerful enough telescope you can zoom into the exact spot where man didn't land on the moon in 1969. Greatest hoax of all time."
Another , typical of those who claim the opposite, says: "You can literally use a telescope to see rover tracks/leftovers on the moon."
Rating: False
The U.S. led six manned missions that landed on the moon, beginning with Apollo 11, from 1969 to 1972.
The 12 astronauts who walked on the lunar surface conducted scientific research and brought home moon rocks. They planted American flags in the lunar soil, drove around in buggies and even whacked golf balls.
Astronauts are expected to again make the 384,000-kilometre journey to the moon in 2025 after an absence of more than half a century.
In September 2011, NASA posted taken by its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, saying it captured the sharpest images ever taken from space of the Apollo 12, 14 and 17 landing sites.
"Images show the twists and turns of the paths made when the astronauts explored the lunar surface," NASA said.
"At the Apollo 17 site, the tracks laid down by the lunar rover are clearly visible, along with the last foot trails left on the moon. The images also show where the astronauts placed some of the scientific instruments that provided the first insight into the moon's environment and interior."
However, people cannot see such things from Earth.
The limits of telescopes
Even the most advanced telescopes on Earth do not allow people to see objects or tracks left by people on the moon.
NASA says a special manoeuvre allowed the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to dip to an altitude as low as 21 kilometres as it passed over the moon's surface.
"You don't need a very large telescope to be able to see quite well at such a short distance," said , a professor in the department of physics and astronomy at Ontario's University of Waterloo.
However, it's much different when eyeing the moon from Earth.
Resolution is measured in arcseconds, Fich noted. The largest telescope under construction, which is planned to have a diameter of 39 metres, is expected to achieve a resolution of 0.005 arcseconds. That would be almost good enough to see a NASA landing module on the moon, he said.
At the moment, the Earth’s atmosphere is the main limitation to resolution, not the size of the telescope, Fich said. "You go out at night and the stars twinkle — that twinkling is the Earth's atmosphere blurring out the image of the stars."
Even at the world's very best observatory sites, the atmosphere blurs the view to 0.1 arcsecond, and at most sites the resolution is one arcsecond, Fich said.
"In my backyard, the best you can do is 10 arcseconds."
While that might afford stargazers some stirring views of the heavens, they won't catch a glimpse of a module or rover, let alone a flag.
Sources
Claims suggesting the moon landings did not happen because no traces of the visits can be seen through a telescope are on Twitter () and ().
Claims that evidence of human visitation to the moon can be seen from Earth are on Twitter (), () and ().
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