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Layers of lenticular clouds... Too beautiful to be true? You bet.

Lens-shaped, or lenticular, clouds are created by what's known as "orographic lift," as air moves in a wave-like motion over a land mass. They're often so unusual and symmetrically shaped that people can mistake them for UFOs.

But there's a photo making its way around the Net (top image) with a series of layered lenticular clouds over Mt. Fujiyama that looks too unusual to be true. And, according to NewsObserver, it is. Someone reportedly got creative with Photoshop, taking what was already an amazing (bottom image, apparently public-domain) shot, and took it a little over the top. Sure, lenticular clouds near Mt. Fuji can come in layers ( http://goo.gl/skVbdj ); it's this one that NewsObserver says is faked.

So what did we learn? Nature is plenty cool enough on its own - and you should always check out the sources of pictures and images you see to make sure they're factual. As the second President of the U.S., John Adams, once said, “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

(FYI, here's a NOAA schematic showing how lenticular clouds appear.