I recently found this reel on instagram that we have captured a little image/video of the sun.
Given how far the earth is to the moon, could it be possible for us to see the flag on the surface on the moon then if man actually landed on the moon?
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No, it is not possible. The largest optical telescope in the world has an aperture of 10.5 meters across. In order to distinguish something the size of the flag on the Moon from Earth you would need an optical telescope with an aperture around 200 meters across. Not only does such a telescope not exist but there are likely significant challenges that would make building such a telescope impractical and largely pointless.
You have good answers already so I will add that we *do* have pictures of the Apollo landing sites, taken from satellites orbiting the moon.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/apollo-sites.html
Not even close. Call the flag 1 m across and 400 000 km away. So the ratio between those distances is 400 million. Now there are about 2 million wavelengths of light per metre so the telescope would need to be 200 m across to have any chance just of seeing that there was an object there. Seeing any details would need a much bigger telescope than that.
Let’s talk about something called Angular Size.
Angular Size is basically a measure of how big a thing appears to be based on both how big it is and how far it is away. For example, a quarter held at arms length might appear to be a similar size to the sun in the sky, and that is because they’re the same angular size.
Some quick googling because I’m lazy to do the math gives me this…
https://www.highpointscientific.com/astronomy-hub/post/night-sky-news/can-we-see-the-flag-on-the-moon
A flag on the moon has an angular size of ~0.002 arcseconds (an arcsecond is 1/60 of an arcminute, and an arcminute is 1/60th of a degree). In comparison, the Hubble telescope can do about 0.03 arcseconds of resolution. So even the hubble telescope cannot make out a flag on the moon.
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Another piece of evidence is the retroreflectors left on the moon, which are used to measure the distance between the Earth and the moon. However, even in this case, to observe actual results, one needs access to specialized equipment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Laser_Ranging_experiments
So, the short answer is no. Even the most powerful optical telescopes cannot pick out that level of detail at that distance.
In 2011 NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured the sharpest images ever taken from space of the Apollo 12, 14 and 17 landing sites. You can see that detail here: [https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/apollo-sites.html](https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/apollo-sites.html)
But lets say, for the sake of discussion, that some fantastic new technology was invented which would allow you to take Google map resolution images of the moon surface. What would we see.
Well, according to Buzz Aldrin, the first flag was apparently knocked over by the landing craft engine blast when it took off. It has probably been covered by a layer of dust making it invisible to observers.
Later flags were planted further away from the landers but, after 40+ years of unfiltered solar uv radiation they have all been more or les bleached white. The only one that still has the stars and stripes visible is the original one which, as stated earlier, is under a layer of dust so not exposed.
Dource: [https://history.nasa.gov/alsj/ApolloFlags-Condition.html](https://history.nasa.gov/alsj/ApolloFlags-Condition.html)
No. We already have the largest telescope in the world. The Gran Canarias has a 10.5 meter mirror and it is not able to see the flag on the moon.
To see the flag on the moon from Earth you would need a telescope with a mirror about 200 meters in diameter (which is huge!)
And there is no “if” man actually landed on the moon. We definitely did.
If you are talking about a telescope here on Earth, it’s a terrible spot to look from. Our air, specifically atmospheric turbulence, really messes up the view from most locations.
Not exactly related to the question, but since it will come up in some people’s minds: How many times have we been to the moon? A lot of moon deniers focus on Apollo 11 to talk about how “the moon landing” was faked. Problem is, there wasn’t one moon landing. We went back. Over and over. We’ve put people on the moon six times. So not only would they have had to fake Apollo 11, they’d have had to fake tons more footage and data of much higher quality over the following five year span.
The last moon-landing denier I spoke to wasn’t aware we’d ever gone back after Armstrong & Aldrin. Sigh.
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