I noticed that using MS Paint, but I looked at some pictures of my own taken with low resolution, and I see somewhat similar effects at boundaries, so I dunno.
Of course, I am suggesting that it was pasted in! But I don’t know if the pixel “halo” is evidence of this. My concerns are:
1) The missile speed. Could a shot like this really freeze an incoming missile? There seems to be no motion blur at all.
2) Is it air-launched or ground-launched? Most of the press coverage indicates an air attack, but the picture indicates a ballistic trajectory. The lack of rocket exhaust would seem to preclude an air-launch.
3) The sequence with the second picture. What did it hit? The middle ground looks empty in the first picture. Also, the timing seems suspect to me. Don’t you get an initial “ray” appearance, followed by plumes in the following seconds? Dunno.
These could be real, I guess, but I’m not convinced.
The thing that drew my attention was if you just right click on the photo at the website and click on ‘view image’, you can see the outline of the missle in the original photo without even blowing it up.
I just magnified it for clarification.