Search the internet for an image of the Milky Way and you’ll find dozens of pictures showcasing our home galaxy in its full spiraling glory.

But a former NASA space analyst has shared the ‘truth’ about the pH๏τographs, revealing they’re not real.

Alexandra Doten explained that humans have only seen illustrations of what scientists believe the Milky Way looks like.

That’s because snapping a pH๏τo of our galaxy in its entirety would mean sending a spacecraft beyond its edge – which might never even be possible, Doten said.

‘There isn’t a single full pH๏τo of the Milky Way, which is the galaxy we live in,’ former NASA space analyst and science content creator Alexandra Doten revealed in a recent TikTok.

‘Every full image you see of the Milky Way is an illustration. We cannot see the Milky Way like this, and I don’t think humans ever will,’ Doten said.

Doten is a science content creator and former NASA space analyst, whose job involved providing technical and policy support to the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) branch at NASA Headquarters.

This year, she made Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list of social media influencers for her educational astronomy TikToks.

The Milky Way is a disk-shaped spiral galaxy that’s a whopping 100,000 light-years wide – the equivalent of 600,000 trillion miles – and 1,000 light years thick.