DISCLAIMER: This article is not saying that I believe any of the information presented. I’m simply explaining a popular theory. Please don’t yell at me, I’m fragile.

The notion that the televised moon landing on July 20, 1969 was fake or staged is a popular one among conspiracy theorists. The evidence to prove this theory is convincing as well.

Theory #1: The stars. Many who viewed pictures or saw the live broadcast noticed that there was an absence of stars in the middle of space. The moon doesn’t have clouds so the stars should be completely visible and much brighter than they are from Earth, because there’s no atmospheric barrier to filter the light. The theory is that if NASA had tried to digitally insert stars into the video footage and photographs, it would have been impossible to pinpoint the exact correct geographic locations of all the stars which would have caused even more suspicion around the event. Even in the most high quality pictures from the landing, the absence of stars is unrealistic.

Theory #2: The waving flag. There is absolutely no air on the moon’s atmosphere which eliminates any chance of wind, so there’s no explanation for the flag waving throughout the footage. Obviously there are countless explanations as to why the flag could have appeared to be rippling, for example, according to NASA the flag was stored in a thin tube until it was planted in the moon’s surface so the rippling seen was just the flag unfolding. However, it is suspicious.

Theory #3: Multiple light sources. On the moon there should be only one strong light source, the sun. With this information it would be a reasonable assumption that all the shadows should be going the same way. This wasn’t the case because the shadows, as clearly shown in videos and pictures, are going in all different directions which led conspiracy theorists to think that they could have been taken in a film studio.

Theory #4: The studio light. You can see what seems to be a studio light reflected off the helmet of one of the astronauts in multiple photographs from the Apollo 12 mission. The object looks to be hanging from some sort of wire which led conspiracy theorists to believe that it looks like a light found in film studios. While the poor quality of the photograph only gives questionable resemblance, the mystery remains as to why a foreign object would be on the moon.

Theory #5: Lack of impact crater. As can be seen in photographs and video footage, the Apollo 12 ship left no blast crater on the moon’s surface. It looks as if the ship was simply placed there. The moon is covered with fine lunar dust which also doesn’t seem to be displaced in any way. Like the flag waving theory, this one also has many potential explanations. NASA has explained that the spacecraft made a less harsh impact on the moon because of the lack of gravity and the surface itself is solid rock so a blast crater isn’t really feasible.

Theory #6: The “C” rock. In photographs from the moon landing there is what looks to be the letter “C” on one of the rocks. The fact that humans had never been to the moon and that it looks to be perfectly symmetrical which pretty much rules out that this is a natural occurrence, it lead some to believe that the rock is a prop on a movie set that a set designer simply forgot to turn over.

There are many reasons the United States would have to fake the moon landing. The race to the moon was tight between America and Russia, so it wouldn’t be too far fetched to think that the United States would want to win in any way possible–including faking the landing. A highly more doubtful theory is that aliens contacted the government and told them to film a “moon landing” to disprove the existence of extraterrestrial life.

So, was the moon landing fake? You tell me.