Space X and Tesla founder Elon Musk really wants to colonize Mars. It’s a lofty, not impossible, endeavor for sure, but a good start would be being able to identify the red planet in the first place.
This Sunday afternoon, Musk posted an image to Twitter that read “Occupy Mars” alongside a picture of an orange-red celestial body. To the untrained eye, nothing seemed out of order.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 23, 2019
But science writer Upulie Divisekera immediately pointed out that the image didn’t include a picture of Mars. The image is actually the moon during a total lunar eclipse.
“Hey Super Space Genius,” she wrote in a retweet of Musk’s tweet. “that’s the moon in a total lunar eclipse.”
Hey Super Space Genius, that’s the moon in a total lunar eclipse https://t.co/osZjHnarfK
— The Jupiter Girl (@upulie) June 23, 2019
An image of the January 20-21 total lunar eclipse posted on earthsky.org confirms that the image is of the moon, not Mars.
In the comment thread beneath Musk’s initial tweet, most didn’t realize the screwup, but one person pointed it out and actually got Musk to reply.
Moon too
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 23, 2019
The moon masquerading as Mars also appears on a T-shirt line bearing the “Occupy Mars” logo, although it’s not known if the T-shirts are endorsed or affiliated with Musk.
As of this writing, Musk’s tweet is still up and collecting Twitter mockery.
https://twitter.com/R3rr0/status/1142907050705457155
https://twitter.com/TrevorMahlmann/status/1142904590603640837
Smooth Brain Billionaire Boy really just posted the moon, thinking it was mars.
— No Goats No Glory (@MadeOfEyebrows) June 23, 2019
https://twitter.com/Bitcoin_ator/status/1142909926144126976
Featured image via Twitter
