Fact check: Illustration shows artist's depiction of exoplanet, not photo of Earth and sun

The claim: An image shows the Earth and sun in the same picture

An image that purportedly depicted the Earth and sun recently began circulating on social media.

"Earth and the sun caught in a single photo," reads a January 6 Facebook post. "It's so beautiful."

Another version on Facebook posted the day prior, which has since been deleted, received more than 350 shares in a week.

The image appears to show a planet, a star and other distant celestial objects, but it is actually an artist's illustration of an exoplanet. It is not a photograph, according to NASA.

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USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user who shared the claim for comment.

Image digitally created

The social media image appears to be a version of an image released by NASA in a 2014 press release announcing the discovery of a new exoplanet — a planet located outside of Earth's solar system.

"The image looks remarkably like an artist’s concept that I worked on for a discovery announcement from NASA’s Kepler mission of Kepler-186f in April 2014," Michele Johnson, a NASA spokesperson told USA TODAY in an email. "The artist’s concept of Kepler-186f is not a photo."

The artist's rendition of Kepler-186f is featured prominently in the NASA press release. While the social media image is rotated 90° from the press release image, they otherwise appear to be identical.

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Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that an image shows the Earth and sun in the same picture. The image is actually an artist's illustration of an exoplanet.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Artist's depiction of exoplanet is not photo of Earth, sun