Yahoo News Spacewalk videos edited to falsely claim 'Islamic call to prayer was heard from space'
Videos of spacewalks have been edited and recirculated with a false claim they show the Adhan, the Islamic call to prayer, being heard from space. AFP found the original versions of the videos did not include the call. It is also impossible for any sound broadcast from Earth to be heard directly in space as soundwaves cannot travel in a vacuum.
"When the Adhan is heard in outer space," read the Indonesian-language text in a video uploaded on Facebook on May 28, 2024.
The clip -- viewed more than 3.1 million times -- shows an astronaut on a spacewalk, with the Adhan playing in the background.
A similar video featuring the same false claim was also viewed more than six million times on TikTok.
Another video -- showing a spacewalk with text repeating the false claim -- has been viewed on TikTok more than 37,400 times since it was uploaded on March 7.
"The first astronaut who heard the Adhan," the Indonesian-language text read.
The video was also shared with the same false claim in Indonesian-language posts on Facebook; and on other platforms in Hindi and Malaysian.
However, AFP found the videos were edited to insert the sound of the Adhan.
Songs played on Earth cannot be heard from space, as soundwaves cannot travel in a vacuum (archived link).
First video
A reverse image and keyword searches found NASA uploaded the unedited video -- in which the Adhan could not be heard -- on its official YouTube account on November 29, 2017 (archived link).
The false video, rotated from the original footage, corresponds with the NASA video from its 25-second mark.
NASA's video was titled: "Action Cam Footage From October 2017 Spacewalk".
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video from the false post (left) and the original NASA clip (right), with similar elements highlighted by AFP:
The caption said the Go-Pro footage was taken during a spacewalk by astronauts Randy Bresnik and Joe Acaba outside the International Space Station on October 20, 2017.
Bresnik also shared the footage on his official Facebook page alongside this expedition summary (archived links here and here).
Second video
The second false video was extracted from a longer clip uploaded on the International Space Station's (ISS) official Facebook account titled "Action Cam Footage from U.S. Spacewalk #41" (archived link).
As with the first false video, the original footage was rotated and the Adhan was added to the edited clip.
The post's caption read: "NASA Astronaut Peggy Whitson captured this video during a spacewalk March 30, with astronaut Shane Kimbrough.
"The duo connected cables, installed a relay box and covered the Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 despite the loss of a shield."
The second false video corresponded with the ISS video from its five-minute, 32-second mark.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the second clip in the false post (left) and the original ISS footage (right), with similar elements highlighted by AFP:
