IT LOOKS
ARTIFICIAL
— 'Earth shine' —
As if the previous debunks have not been satisfying enough for the non-believers, another theory was that even though Moon is known to have only one main source of light, the Sun, however, some objects in the photographs are visible, although they were in shade, therefore the conclusion from the hoax supporters is that since the Sun cannot make shadows shift to different directions, it must have been a staged scene lit by artificial lights in a Hollywood studio. In one of the photos that was used as ‘evidence’, Aldrin is descending the Apollo 11 lunar module ladder. The space ship has its dark shadow, however, Aldrin is clearly visible on the ladder - which, if there is indeed only one main source of light, would be impossible to see.
Frienberg clarified that while the Sun indeed is one of the main source of light, it is not the only one. Lunar terrain is covered by regolith; a mixture of dust and broken rock. When the sunlight reaches the moon, regolith makes the sun’s light bounce and partially reflects it back to Earth, which becomes a simple reflection. (Fienberg, R., 2019) In addition to that, the third source of light is actually coming from Earth. Although it is probably one of the smallest amount of illumination, the blue oceans on Earth makes the sun’s light bounce off, creating a so-called “Earth shine” which, going back to Anna Ross’s explanation, “also illuminates the Moon a little bit from another direction”.