Javelin throwing already looks dangerous enough without an optical illusion making it appear considerably worse.

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A perfectly timed photograph of Estonian javelin thrower Magnus Kirt has left people doing a serious double-take after the athlete appeared to have a javelin passing straight through his head.

Thankfully, Kirt was completely fine.

The unedited image shows the athlete preparing to throw, holding the javelin behind him with his left hand. But thanks to an incredibly well-aligned shadow, it looks as though the spear has entered through the back of his skull before emerging from beneath his right eye.

The image was shared on Instagram alongside the caption: “Confusing perspective. What’s going on? No cheating. He is totally fine, why does it look like he is not? This is an unedited photograph. Look closely. After reviewing the photographs after his javelin competition they noticed one of his photographs looked strange.”

And plenty of people needed more than one look before figuring out exactly what was happening.

After the same picture appeared on Reddit, one person admitted: “That looked like it’s lodged into his skull, had to do a double-take.”

Another wrote: “This took me longer than I’m willing to admit to figure out.”

Someone else joked: “Wow! He has terrible aim!”

The explanation becomes clearer once you focus on Kirt’s face. The section which appears to be the front of the javelin is actually its shadow falling across him at almost exactly the right angle.

One Instagram user said: “I looked at [this] for a long 10 seconds before realising it’s a shadow.”

A Reddit user offered a more detailed explanation: “He hasn’t thrown it yet; he’s holding the spear behind him, ready to throw. The part that’s on his face is the shadow from the part above his face.”

Even knowing the answer doesn’t necessarily make the photograph any less convincing.

Another user responded: “Agreed on the need to zoom, but even after you see it, it still looks crazy because the colours match so perfectly between the shadow and spear. Zoomed out it looks as if that part of his face is see-through or transparent or something.”

The sunlight also plays a major role in creating the effect.

As another person pointed out: “Also the sun is at the perfect angle for this. Any different and the shadow wouldn’t be so well aligned.”

The combination of the javelin’s position, the angle of the sunlight and the similarity between the colour of the spear and its shadow creates an almost seamless illusion.

Another Instagram user explained: “It’s the javelin tip’s shadow cast on his face in the angle matching the javelin itself from the side, you can see the limit between his brow and the actual javelin when zooming in”

Meanwhile, someone else had a slightly more entertaining explanation: “He passes it through the back of his head right between his eyes, for better aim.”

Kirt represented Estonia at the 2016 Rio Olympics before winning silver at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha.

His personal best throw of 90.61 metres remains the Estonian record, although he has since retired from the sport.

And judging by this photograph, he also walked away with one of the more confusing javelin pictures you’re likely to see.

Featured image credit: Pipe Vasquez / Pexels