Yes (sigh) satellites are real. False claim that search results are all renders | Fact check
The claim: Google Images does not show real pictures of satellites because space is not real
A Dec. 20, 2023, Facebook video (direct link, archive link) shows three men discussing satellites and the debunked flat Earth conspiracy theory.
“Google images of satellites,” says bodybuilder and influencer Bradley Martyn. “I’ve never seen a satellite that was real. I’m not a flat earther, I’m just saying.”
Brendan Schaub, a podcast host and former MMA fighter, replies, “That is very strange now that you bring that up.”
Later, MMA fighter and actor Rampage Jackson claims, “The sun and the moon is (sic) real, but outer space is not.”
The video’s caption reads, “Google Satellites in Space, click images. Any of those look real to you?”
A more recent Facebook video making the same claim was shared more than 2,000 times in two weeks before it was deleted.
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Our rating: False
There are real images of satellites in Google image search results. And scientists have plenty of evidence to prove space exists and that the Earth is spherical, not flat.
Search results show many real images of satellites
A Google image search returns many digitally rendered images of man-made satellites, but contrary to the video’s claim, there are real images of satellites in the search results too. Here are some of the images returned in our Google results:
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An abundance of evidence shows the Earth is a sphere, including images of the planet taken from space. And the video’s claim that space does not exist is nonsense too. The Hubble Space Telescope has photographed thousands of distant galaxies and other celestial objects, and so has its more modern equivalent, the James Webb Space Telescope.
USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
PolitiFact also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
- Google search, accessed April 23, satellites
- NASA, Sept. 5, 2018, What is a satellite?
- NASA, accessed April 23, Hubble Space Telecope
- NASA, accessed April 23, Hubble Mission Galleries
- NASA, Oct. 13, 2016, Hubble Reveals Observable Universe Contains 10 Times More Galaxies Than Previously Thought
- NASA, accessed April 23, James Webb Space Telescope
- NASA Hubble Space Telescope, July 1, 2016, Flickr post
- Getty Images, Aug. 11, 2017, International Space Station photographed by crew members on the Space Shuttle Discovery
- Official SpaceX Photos, May 24, 2019, Flickr post
- Scientific American, Oct. 17, 2019, SpaceX’s Starlink Constellation Could Swell by 30,000 More Satellites
- NASA Johnson, Jan. 12, 2015, Flickr post
- Space.com, April 22, 2013, Earth From Space: Classic NASA Photos (Gallery)
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