New Delhi: For the last few years a satellite image purportedly showing an illuminated India on Diwali night unfailingly does the rounds on social media websites. But the fact is the image put up by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Geophysical Data Centre has nothing to do with Diwali, the festival of lights. While not exactly a hoax, it is something shown out of context.
The image in question is actually an overlay of different photos taken by NASA satellites over the years to highlight India's increasing population via night illumination. "The white lights were the only illumination visible before 1992. The blue lights appeared in 1992. The green lights in 1998. And the red lights appeared in 2003," explains a post by Robert Johnson on Business Insider. Many bloggers have pointed out that the image isn't what it claims to be, but many Internet users continue to fall for it.
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