CHENNAI: A whole lot of messages go viral on social media on a regular basis, while some fake messages are easy to identify, like the ones claiming some scientific discovery or medical innovations, some can easily be believed by many.
One such message that has been going viral for months claims that a new miracle was witnessed in two countries abroad where two Suns were spotted at the same time. The message read, “The Miracle happened today, USA and Canada saw two Suns, this is called Hunter’s Moon.” The message explained that ‘this was due to change of the orbit, the Sun sets and Moon rises at the same time with both being opposite to each other, at a particular angle or degree the moon reflects the sun so bright that it almost feels like another sun’.
However experts have called out the message as being completely untrue and have said that the optical illusion of the sun has no connection whatsoever with a ‘Hunter’s Moon’. Hunter’s Moon, just like any other moon, rises after the Harvest Moon, which is the full moon nearest to the autumnal equinox. It has a special path across the sky but it is in no way bigger, or brighter than usual.
Previously, when the message went viral, readers were made to believe that the phenomenon was a result of the reflection of the Sun on ‘crystal pools’ or ice crystals but these explanations have been dismissed.
However, the phenomenon does occur but only once in 139 years and is a result of convergence of Jupiter and the reflection of the sunlight back on Earth. Therefore the message going viral in no way provides any factual evidence as to the explanation of the two Moons. So readers should not be fooled into believing these
‘fantastical facts’.