Slashdot Mirror
Chinese Moon Photo Doctored, Crater Moved
mytrip writes "A controversy over last week's photo of the lunar surface, allegedly from China's lunar spacecraft Chang'e, appears to be resolved. It's real but it isn't. An expert says the photo's resolution shows that it is of recent origin. However, for some inexplicable reason, someone on Earth edited the photo and moved a crater to a different location. 'In the week since the picture was released amid much fanfare in Beijing, there have been widespread rumors that the photo was a fake, copied from an old picture collected by a U.S. space probe. The photo from China's Chang'e 1 orbiter is clearly a higher-resolution view, with sunlight streaming from the northwest rather than the north. The mission's chief scientist, Ouyang Ziyuan, told the Beijing News that a new crater had been spotted on the Chang'e imagery — a crater that didn't appear on the US imagery. Lakdawalla determined that the crater in question wasn't exactly new — instead, it appeared to be a crater that had been moved from one spot on the picture to another spot slightly south.'"
They moved it to cover up the obelisk!
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
SPOILER: It was a poor stitch/blend job.
This guy's the limit!
They should have used the original movie set in New Mexico.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Bad Astonomy readers are already up to date. It's an error in composition of the picture. Nothing less, nothing more.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
It seems here that this is actually just a result of a vanilla screw-up.
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity". Though instead of "stupidity" I'd substitute "error".
Engineering is the art of compromise.
If it isn't an obvious photoshop who's to say that the US didn't manipulate their original so that they would know if someone else was using their pictures instead of making their own. I could see the U.S. doing this to see if a government said they had technology that they did not.
As per the TFA, a mistake was made stitching together 19 separate photographs to produce image of a large area of the moon that the probe could not have captured in one shot. Since each picture is taken at slightly different angle and distance from the surface, some retouching is unavoidable. Otherwise some craters will look like a weird set of arcs with different radius rather than circles. Such stretching got to slightly move some depicted object from their exact position. In fact, it is not possible to produce a flat picture of a 3D object without distortions. Just compare the size and shape of Alaska on your globe as compared to your map.
I would assume that you can request the original mission data for serious research use instead of having to rely on newspaper clippings for science. If those images are also doctored, then we have a genuine controversy.
The original article says and suggests nothing about the photo being "doctored", it's simply a mistake that scientists make all the time. When can we expect a better moderated Slashdot or people who can read?
I realize that it goes against the general Slashdot commenting procedure, but read just a little before commenting on this one, please.
1. Two photos were poorly stitched together, repeating an image of a crater on the combined photo (the crater was photographed twice).
2. Chinese scientists miss the poor stitch job and proclaim they found a new crater.
3. Someone else takes a close look at this "discovery" and points out the error in the stitch job.
The crater wasn't intentionally added, it's a result of trying to align two photos, each taken from a different perspective in which the edges won't completely line up exactly.
http://xkcd.com/331/
Use of the chinese version of photoshop would be easy to test for, it has the lead-based paint bucket in place of the regular one...
Here's the issue - your sense of humor is broken. Retardation is not funny - but my joke is.
Let's hit wikipedia real quick: Today's Feng Shui schools teach that it is the ancient Chinese practice of placement and arrangement of space to achieve harmony with the environment. Fen Shui originated in China. The picture came from China. See the connection? That my statement is absurd is what makes it funny. That Feng Shui would be banned by the Chinese government makes the joke that much funnier. This does not 'diss' (why do you diss english with this lame slang?) Taiwanese culture in the least. Taiwan doesn't even enter the picture - unless you are running around with some kind of chip on your shoulder.
Oh and as far as our supporting Taiwan - I personally took part in operations like this that have been a part of Taiwan remaining free from Chinese control. But I'm wandering now - the issue is your inability to get a joke. Pointing fingers at Christians and laughing at Allah could be funny too in the right context.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Seppuku a.k.a. "Hari Kari" is a japanese tradition.
It's called post-processing. You should go to the STSCI site and download some raw Hubble frames if you want to see some sources images that were "doctored" in the extreme to create those iconic images that adorn your calendars and desktops. The unprocessed frames are barely recognizable and contain huge amounts of visible noise from cosmic ray hits and all sorts of instrument artifacts.
The Chinese screwed up mosaicking their imagery. Big deal. Now that they know how far up their ass the scientific community will be looking, I am sure they will strive for more rigor. Their desire to be a contributing member of the scientific community appears genuine to me.
Edith Keeler Must Die