Art lovers have spotted what appears to be a famous satellite in a painting of Jesus Christ more than 425 years old, sparking wild time travel theories.

The Glorification of the Eucharist, painted by Ventura Salimbeni in 1595, depicts the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, which is represented by a dove.

But the artwork also seems to show another figure that doesn't usually appear in the Holy Trinity – a blue sphere with spikes sticking out of its surface, which some conspiracy theorists believe is Sputnik, the first artificial space satellite to orbit the Earth in 1957.

READ MORE: Art lovers spot 'iPhone' in 1882 painting sparking wild time travel theory

Steve Mera, chairman of the Manchester Association of Paranormal Investigation & Training (MAPIT) and a paranormal specialist and lecturer, said at a conference attended by the Express: "You start to find a lot of religious connotation linked in with the UFO phenomenon.

"This painting [the Eucharist] was painted in the 1600s and nobody ever really knew what that was a painting of, until we kind of looked at Sputnik, which was the first satellite to pass round the Earth.

"What is really, really interesting is it is surprisingly similar to Sputnik, even to the point there is a little nodule there (on Sputnik) and the exact same nodule on the side there [on the object in the painting]."

He added neither Salimbeni nor the messiah would have had any knowledge of Sputnik, which was launched by the Soviet Union nearly 400 years after the painting was completed.

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He added: "Did they somehow have knowledge of future events?"

And Mera isn't the only one touting the bizarre theory – Twitter users also appear to have spotted the strange phenomenon.

"I just stumbled across the painting online and recognized the Sputnik satellite. It's just something odd to think about…" one said recently.

Meanwhile another piled on: "The painting “Glorification of the Eucharist” from 1595 has Sputnik in the painting. Conspiracy theorists believe it proves time travel."

The evidence may sound compelling, but like many apparent paranormal events, there's a simple explanation.

Art experts believe the "ball" is supposed to represent the Celestial Sphere – also known as the universe – while the spikes sticking out of it illustrate God's power over it.

But this isn't the first time the prophet has been at the centre of similar conspiracy theories.

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A 1,000-year-old painting hanging in the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Georgia shows Christ nailed on the cross as per the world-famous Biblical scene, but it also appears to have some kind of UFO in the background.

One of the men in the painting even appears to be pointing up at the flying saucer.

Conspiracy theory website Ancient Aliens touts: "The unknown artist seems to be telling us that these flying saucers were present during the death of Jesus."

Art historians have said the supposed UFO in the 11th-century artwork was probably meant to represent a guardian angel rather than aliens.

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