‘Timeline of the Universe’ given by NASA is falsely shared as ‘Structure of the Universe’. - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 9, 2020
A picture is being shared on social media with a claim that it shows the structure of the Universe as per NASA. In the post, it is also being claimed that structure of the Universe as given by NASA resembles the Shiva Linga, which as per Vedas represents the structure of the Universe. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo shows the structure of the Universe given by NASA.
Fact: The posted picture shows the timeline of the Universe given by NASA, not the structure of the Universe. Also, the timeline picture has been rotated in the post to show it as Shiv Linga. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When the Universe photo given in the post was run through Google Reverse Image Search, the same photo was found on one of the NASA websites. On the website, it can be read that the posted picture shows the ‘Timeline of the Universe’, not the structure of the Universe. Also, the timeline picture has been rotated in the post to show it as Shiv Linga.
Another similar picture of the timeline of the Universe, as given on the NASA website, can be found here.
Regarding the structure/shape of the universe, NASA has mentioned the following on one of its websites – ‘We now know (as of 2013) that the universe is flat with only a 0.4% margin of error. This suggests that the Universe is infinite in extent; however, since the Universe has a finite age, we can only observe a finite volume of the Universe. All we can truly conclude is that the Universe is much larger than the volume we can directly observe’.
To sum it up, the posted picture shows the timeline of the Universe given by NASA, not the structure of the Universe.