A popular science communicator named Massimo shared an optical illusion on Twitter on April 4, and the baffling image earned over 4.4 million views. At first, the photograph looks like the Earth, set against a starry night sky.
It’s reminiscent of the Universal Pictures logo or a shot that one would see in a “Star Wars” film right before two ships go speeding by while blasting each other with laser fire. However, the Earth in the photo is not a planet, and the stars in the night sky aren’t stars at all.
“This photo is (another) example of how optical illusions mess with your mind,” Massimo captioned the photo. “First you see a picture of the Earth from space and then…”
u201cThis photo is (another) example of how optical illusions mess with your mind. nnFirst you see a picture of the Earth from space and then…u201d— Massimo (@Massimo)
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“Then what?” Meningloos tweeted
“A cityscape,” Christopher Kyle Fletcher responded.
If you are reading this on a smartphone and you rotate it, you’ll notice that what looked like stars is a skyline with a few tall buildings. What appeared to be the Earth is actually clouds sometime around sunset or sunrise.
Meg0365 corrected the photo, and it all makes sense.
u201c@Rainmaker1973 Nice one!u201d— Massimo (@Massimo)
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The tweet is a compelling example of how our minds can play tricks on us and that our first impression of something may be incorrect.
“This highlights the two different processing speeds of the brain, a ‘quick’ answer is thrown out as soon as possible, a slower but more accurate answer is presented once the brain has performed more comparisons and details. Some go through life only accepting the quick responses,” Colin Angus wrote.