In the context of the recent deployment of Chandrayaan-3’s Pragyan Rover onto the lunar surface for scientific studies, a video is being widely on social media claiming that the rover has transmitted footage of aliens to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and alleges that the ISRO Chairman Dr. S Somnath has stated they discovered approximately 700 aliens on the moon. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Pragyaan rover transmitted the footage of aliens to ISRO and ISRO chairman stated that they discovered 700 aliens on Moon.
Fact: ISRO has not released any statement confirming the presence of aliens on the moon based on the footage received from Chandrayaan-3’s Pragyaan rover. Furthermore, there is no indication of aliens in the footage sent by Chandrayaan-3. Moreover, the visuals shown in the video are animates stock videos. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
First, we conducted a search on the official website and social media handles of ISRO to determine if the organization has issued any statements regarding the discovery of aliens on the moon, based on the footage received from the Chandrayaan-3 mission. We also examined the footage sent by the Pragyaan rover and Vikram lander, but there is no evidence of the aliens as claimed in the viral video.
According to the official statements released by ISRO (here and here), the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument and Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) aboard the Chandrayaan-3 Rover have successfully conducted the first-ever in-situ measurements of the elemental composition of the lunar surface near the south pole. Preliminary analyses have unveiled the presence of Aluminium (Al), Sulphur (S), Calcium (Ca), Iron (Fe), Chromium (Cr), and Titanium (Ti) on the lunar surface. Further measurements have revealed the presence of manganese (Mn), silicon (Si), and oxygen (O). A thorough investigation into the presence of hydrogen is currently underway, and a detailed scientific analysis of these observations is in progress.
Furthermore, we also discovered that the visuals of the aliens shown in the video have been taken from various animated stock sources (here, here, and here) on the internet. These visuals, along with footage from Chandrayaan-3 and other visuals from Mars, have been combined to create an unfounded story.
To sum it up, ISRO has not issued any statement confirming the existence of aliens on the moon based on the footage received from Chandrayaan-3’s Pragyaan rover.
