India lit up. The caption took liberties.
That colourful satellite image is not an annual festival photograph.
Original editorial illustration. Not an image of the event.
THE CLAIM
A widely shared multicoloured satellite image shows India illuminated on Diwali night.
Summary of the documented claim, not a verbatim quotation.Mislabelled image: it is a composite showing change over time.
Back on planet Earth.
NASA's own Earth Matters explanation identifies the colourful image as a composite created and coloured by NOAA scientists in 2003 to show population growth over time. It is not a single-night photograph of festival lights. NASA also points to an actual night-time satellite image using data collected in November 2012.
The distinction is between a real scientific visualisation and the incorrect story attached to it. Colours in a composite can encode information rather than reproduce what a camera would see. None of this diminishes a celebration on the ground; it simply means that the image's legend deserves as much attention as its brightness.
A decade of data cannot fit into one evening, even with excellent lighting.
BAKWAAS-O-METER™
Our editorial reaction to the claim, not its subject. The factual finding above is separate from the joke. How to read the meter →
They did it. Here are the receipts.
Check the linked record and its surrounding context. Original records and independent reporting are labelled separately. External links open in a new tab.
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NASA · original scientific explanation
VIEW THE ORIGINAL SOURCE →
Found a hole in our homework?
Identify the disputed statement, explain the problem and send evidence. Credible challenges are reviewed; substantive corrections are dated here. A challenge does not automatically remove a report. Our corrections approach →
CHALLENGE THIS REPORT →Dates & correction history
Prepared 28 October 2026. No corrections recorded in this edition.