A French scientist has apologized after tweeting a photo of a slice of chorizo, claiming it was an image of a distant star taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.
Étienne Klein, a renowned physicist and director of France’s Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, shared the image of the spicy Spanish sausage on Twitter last week, praising the “level of detail” it provided.
“Image of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun, located 4.2 light years from us. It was taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. This level of detail… Every day a new world is discovered,” he to say the least. more than 91,000 followers on Sunday.
The post was retweeted and commented on by thousands of users, who took the scientist at his word.
Photo of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun, located 4.2 light years from us. It was taken by the JWST. This level of detail… A new world is revealed day after day. pic.twitter.com/88UBbHDQ7Z
— Etienne KLEIN (@EtienneKlein) July 31, 2022
Things, however, were not as they seemed.
Klein later admitted in a series of follow-up tweets that the image was, in fact, a close-up of a slice of chorizo taken against a black background.
“Well, when it’s cocktail hour, the cognitive bias seems to find a lot to enjoy… Watch out for that. According to contemporary cosmology, no object related to Spanish charcuterie exists anywhere but on Earth”
After facing backlash from members of the online community over the joke, he wrote: “In light of certain comments, I feel compelled to specify that this tweet showing an alleged image of Proxima Centauri was a joke . We learn to distrust arguments from positions of authority as much as the spontaneous eloquence of certain images.”
On Wednesday, Klein apologized for the hoax, saying his intention was to “require caution about images that seem to speak for themselves.”
In an attempt to make amends, he posted an image of the spectacular Cartwheel galaxy, assuring followers that the photo was genuine this time.
The Webb Telescope, the most powerful telescope ever launched into space, officially began science operations on July 12. It will be able to peer into the atmospheres of exoplanets and observe some of the first galaxies created after the universe began by observing them through infrared light. , which is invisible to the human eye.