{"id":11530,"date":"2025-07-21T19:39:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T18:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/?p=11530"},"modified":"2025-08-30T19:48:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T18:48:14","slug":"telescope-image-does-not-show-a-cross-shaped-silhouette-at-the-center-of-our-galaxy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/2025\/07\/21\/telescope-image-does-not-show-a-cross-shaped-silhouette-at-the-center-of-our-galaxy\/","title":{"rendered":"Telescope Image Does Not Show a Cross-Shaped Silhouette at the Center of Our Galaxy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Original article<\/a> (in Croatian) was published on 20\/7\/2025; Author: Marta Kolari\u0107<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The image actually shows interstellar dust around the black hole at the center of galaxy M51, and it was taken back in 1992.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Instagram page Novi \u017divot (archived here<\/a>) recently claimed that a telescope image captured by Hubble shows a \u201ccross\u201d silhouette at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cNASA\u2019s Hubble telescope has captured an unusual structure at the heart of our galaxy \u2013 a shape that strongly resembles a cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thousands of social media users have reacted with awe and spiritual inspiration, interpreting this discovery as a divine reminder of Christ\u2019s sacrifice and presence throughout the universe.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The post correctly states that the image was taken by the NASA Hubble Space Telescope<\/a>, a space observatory launched in 1990 through a joint effort between NASA and the European Space Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite its age and relatively small size, Hubble is still regarded as one of the most powerful telescopes ever built. Orbiting Earth at an altitude of 600 km and equipped with optics five times sharper than ground-based telescopes, Hubble has contributed to some of the most significant discoveries<\/a> in astronomy \u2013 including helping determine the age and expansion rate of the universe, discovering two of Pluto\u2019s moons, confirming that nearly every large galaxy has a black hole at its center, and assisting in the creation of 3D maps of dark matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the post falsely claims that the image shows the center of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. In reality, the image depicts the central region<\/a> of a different galaxy \u2013 M51, also known as the Whirlpool Galaxy \u2013 and was captured more than three decades ago, in 1992.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

M51<\/a> is one of the brightest and most well-known spiral galaxies in the sky and was the first galaxy ever identified as spiral in structure. It is relatively close to Earth and positioned nearly face-on from our perspective, offering a clear view of its core.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the image, a dark \u201cX\u201d shape appears over the galaxy\u2019s nucleus. In 1992, Dr. Holland Ford<\/strong> of Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute explained<\/a> that this feature is the result of dust absorption. The \u201cX\u201d marks the precise location of the black hole at the center of M51, around which millions of stars orbit. The more prominent arm of the \u201cX\u201d is likely a ring of dust seen edge-on \u2013 tilted so that it obscures the black hole from direct view \u2013 while the other arm likely represents a second ring or rotating clouds of gas and dust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This image has frequently been misrepresented online, often used in Christian narratives<\/a> falsely claiming it as \u201cevidence that Heaven lies at the center of our galaxy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion, the 1992 image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope does not show a cross-shaped silhouette at the center of the Milky Way. It captures the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) and a dust formation around its central black hole. The shape interpreted as a \u201ccross\u201d is a natural result of how interstellar dust absorbs and scatters light \u2013 not evidence of divine symbolism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Original article (in Croatian) was published on 20\/7\/2025; Author: Marta Kolari\u0107 The image actually shows interstellar dust around the black hole at the center of galaxy M51, and it was taken back in 1992. The Instagram page Novi \u017divot (archived here) recently claimed that a telescope image captured by Hubble shows a \u201ccross\u201d silhouette at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11531,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[316],"tags":[29,622,515],"class_list":["post-11530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-checks","tag-croatia","tag-hubble-telescope","tag-nasa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11546,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11530\/revisions\/11546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}