Old image from Australia goes viral linking to Prayagraj Mahakumbh

This is an old image from Australia, it has no link to Prayagraj Mahakumbh

Kumbh Mela is an important Hindu pilgrimage, celebrated approximately every 6, 12, and 144 years, correlated with the partial or full revolution of Jupiter and representing the largest human gathering in the world. Mahakumbh Mela 2025 officially commenced on 13 January, 2025 continuing until 26 February, 2025 in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. 

Against this backdrop, an image of the moon aligning with some planets is going viral on social media. The users who share the image claims it to be from Prayagraj Mahakumbh.

Let’s check the truth

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Fact Check- 

We started our investigation with a reverse image search on google and the results led us to the same image uploaded on the Facebook page of the Cosmic Intelligence Agency on 1 May 2022.  The caption of this image reads, “Divine lights! Saturn, Mars, Venus, Jupiter and waning crescent moon just before sunrise 28 April 2022- Perth, Australia”
Here it is said to be from Australia and the credit for this photo has been given to a person named Ren Theelen.

From this, we can understand that the viral image is not recent and at least three years old. It has no connection with Mahakumbh 2025 also.

Using these hints, we conducted further searches and found the Instagram account of Ren Theelen . There he posted this image on 28 April, 2022 with the caption “Planets and moon at Drakesbrook wier”. Drakesbrook wier is a place located near the Waroona Dam in Australia. This place is famous for swimming, canoeing and fishing

To confirm the claim that Jupiter, Saturn, the Sun, and the Moon aligned in a row for the first time in 144 years on January 29, 2025, we conducted further search and discovered that a rare planetary alignment known as a planetary parade occurred on this date. Saturn, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and the crescent Moon were all visible shortly before the sunrise. You can read the details here and here. 

But the viral image is not related to this. Based on these evidences, we can understand that the viral image is neither recent nor related to the Prayagraj Mahakumbh. 

Conclusion- 

Fact crescendo found the claim made along with the viral video to be Misleading. This is an old image from Australia, it has no link to Prayagraj Mahakumbh