Scientists released an image showing the “Cosmic Vine” discovered through the James Webb Space Telescope as a line of galaxies connected to each other in a helix structure.
While researchers did use the James Webb Space Telescope to discover a cluster of galaxies they called the “Cosmic Vine,” they didn’t release an image circulating on social media as part of their studies.
In March 2026, a Facebook post (archived) claimed that the James Webb Space Telescope revealed “a breathtaking structure now dubbed the ‘Cosmic Vine’: a string of 20 galaxies stretching across a staggering 13 million light-years.”
The post included an image
(Facebook page Science and Astronomy)
The same image of this “Cosmic Vine” spread on other social media platforms, including Instagram (archived) and X (archived), as early as mid-2025. Some posts, such as this one from Instagram (archived), shared the image and claimed the vine “resembles the human DNA.”
While researchers did use the James Webb Space Telescope to discover a cluster of galaxies they called the “Cosmic Vine,” they didn’t release the above image as part of their studies
A group of researchers published their first study concerning the Cosmic Vine in February 2024. The paper described it as a massive vine-like structure from the
The study included an image of the Cosmic Vine, noting galaxies within it by circling them in green:
The authors of the study circled galaxies that make up the Cosmic Vine in green. (
Those researchers have continued studying the Cosmic Vine in the years since publishing that first paper. In February 2026, the scientists published a new paper on the Cosmic Vine, refining their previous research. In this paper, they described the Cosmic Vine as a massive
The 2026 paper included an updated image of the Cosmic Vine:
(Cosmic Vine: High abundance of massive galaxies and dark matter halos in a forming cluster at z = 3.44 Nikolaj B. Sillassen, Shuowen Jin, Georgios E. Magdis, Francesco Valentino, Emanuele Daddi, Raphael Gobat, Malte Brinch, Kei Ito, Tao Wang, Hanwen Sun, Gabriel Brammer, Sune Toft and Thomas R. Greve A&A, 706 (2026) A344)
The galaxies circled in both green and orange are confirmed members of the Cosmic Vine. Galaxies in yellow are part of a different structure, which the researchers dubbed the “Leaf.” The white contours identify the densest areas of these structures. The purple circles are the main groups of the two structures.
Even in the updated image with over 100 galaxies added to the Cosmic Vine, the galaxies are still spread out rather than chained together. The images of individual galaxies on the right also show that they are not linked together — though in at least one instance, two appear to be merging.
In c
It’s unlikely a chain of galaxies like the one from the social media post could form in that shape. Galaxies that get too close to each other often — but not always — merge. During merging, a pair of galaxies may hook into each other and appear linked. The appearance of a third galaxy or more would be unlikely to form a chain; NASA has one image of three merging galaxies appearing to
So, where did the image of the galaxies chained together in a helix shape come from? We were unable to track down the source, but we did find examples of it (archived) on social media dating back to at least May 2025. Similar fake Cosmic Vine images (archived) of galaxies linked to each other were also posted on social media around the same time.
The Cosmic Dawn Center, of which many of the Cosmic Vine’s researchers are affiliated, did not publish a press release for the first study and did not use the widely circulated image of the chain of galaxies when it published a press release for the most recent Cosmic Vine study.
The image is likely an artistic representation of the Cosmic Vine or an AI-generated image depicting it.
For further reading, we investigated claims about the discovery of a “super-Earth” exoplanet.