Moon Landing Conspiracy Debunked by New Illumination Tech [VIDEO]

The moon landing is a favorite subject of conspiracy theorists everywhere, where many believe that man never really set foot on the Moon, and that NASA and the US military simply duped the Soviet Union into thinking that the Space Race was over. Now, graphics experts at Nvidia have decided to showcase the capabilities of their latest products by proving that the Apollo missions did truly happen.

Considering the massive amount of money dumped into the Apollo missions, and the undeniable footage of astronauts both lifting off and returning from places like the Moon and the International Space Station, it's hard to imagine how some people believe that the moon landing was faked.

But Nvidia does admit that one cornerstone moon landing conspiracy theory does sound relatively reasonable - at least when taken out of context.

The theory centers around the fact that in an iconic photo of astronaut Buzz Aldrin descending onto the Moon's surface in 1969, he is perfectly well-lit despite the fact that he is clearly in the shadow of the lander and thus hidden from the Sun's light. It has long been stipulated that a filler flash would not have been enough to achieve such ideal lighting, and certainly wouldn't have worked effectively in space.

So how was he so well lit? NASA really didn't have much of an answer - no doubt fueling conspiracy theorists' fire. (Scroll to read on...)

However, Nvidia, a high-end computer graphics card vendor, now claims that its latest technique called "voxel global illumination" can pinpoint sources of light and simulate realistic illuminations.

Using this technology - which can be found in their latest GTX 970 and 980 card models - along with scene-making Unreal Engine 4, the company created a near-perfect replication of the 1969 Apollo 11 landing sight. They found that Aldrin would have indeed been aptly illuminated, despite being hidden from the Sun. This was because the photographer, Neil Armstrong, would have been standing just outside of the lander's shadow.

The stark-white nature of the original Apollo 11 spacesuits were estimated to be 60 to 85 percent reflective. With the Sun's rays bouncing off Armstrong in all directions, experts found that Aldrin would have easily been illuminated - finally dragging the truth of the Apollo landing into the light.

A video explaining these findings in detail can be seen below.

[Credit: NVIDIA]