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Agence France-Presse

A red ball of spicy fire with luminous patches glowing menacingly against a black background.
This, prominent French scientist Etienne Klein declared, was the latest astonishing picture taken by the James Webb Space Telescope of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our sun.
Fellow Twitter users marvelled at the details on the picture purportedly taken by the telescope, which has thrilled the world with images of distant galaxies going back to the birth of the universe.
“This level of detail … A new world is revealed every day,” he gushed.

Photo de Proxima du Centaure, l’étoile la plus proche du Soleil, située à 4,2 année-lumière de nous.
Elle a été prise par le JWST.
Ce niveau de détails… Un nouveau monde se dévoile jour après jour. pic.twitter.com/88UBbHDQ7Z
— Etienne KLEIN (@EtienneKlein) July 31, 2022

But in fact, as Klein later revealed, the picture was not of the intriguing star just over four light-years from the Sun but a far more modest slice of the lip-sizzling Spanish sausage chorizo.
“According to contemporary cosmology, no object belonging to Spanish charcuterie exists anywhere but on Earth,” he said.
Klein acknowledged that many users had not understood his joke which he said was simply aimed at encouraging us “to be wary of arguments from people in positions of authority as well as the spontaneous eloquence of certain images”.
However, at a time when battling fake news is of paramount importance for the scientific community, many Twitter users indicated they were unamused by Klein, director of research at France’s Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and a radio show producer.
Nasa’s Webb telescope shows where stars are born and how they die
On Wednesday, he said sorry to those who were misled.
“I come to present my apologies to those who may have been shocked by my prank, which had nothing original about it,” he said, describing the post as a “scientist’s joke”.
He was soon back on surer ground posting on Twitter an image of the famous Cartwheel Galaxy taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. This time, he assured users, the photo was real.


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Space

French scientist reveals ‘space telescope image’ was actually slice of sausage

French scientist Etienne Klein posted a picture of a slice of chorizo on Twitter, claiming it was an image from the James Webb Space Telescope. He later revealed that it was a prank. Photo: Etienne Klein via Twitter

A composite image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows the Cartwheel Galaxy and other star systems. French scientist Etienne Klein posted this picture on Twitter after an earlier joke tweet featuring a slice of Spanish sausage. Image: Nasa via AFP

Chinese and US scientists build bridges with cutting-edge Hale telescope project

The Hale telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California. Photo: Handout

The telescope has played a key role in scientific discoveries over several decades. Photo: Handout

Scientists from the National Astronomical Observatories of China and Caltech pictured at a symposium in Beijing in 2017. Photo: Handout

The Thirty Metre Telescope to be built in Hawaii. Photo: Handout

How Nasa’s James Webb and China’s Xuntian space telescopes could cooperate in future

An engineer at Nasa’s James Webb space telescope mission operations centre at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, monitors progress as the observatory’s second primary mirror wing rotates into position on January 8.  Photo: Nasa/AFP

The Hubble Space Telescope drifts over the Earth after its release on May 19, 2009. China’s Xuntian space telescope, slated for launch in 2023, has a field of view 300 times that of Hubble. Photo: EPA-EFE

China plans to view the universe’s dark past using a fleet of telescopes orbiting the moon

China’s Hongmeng project plans to send an array of microsatellites to the moon’s orbit to look into the universe’s  past. Image: Chinese Academy of Sciences

News

World

Europe


‘A new world is revealed every day,’ researcher Etienne Klein had gushed, claiming the picture was of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our sun
He later admitted it was a joke aimed at warning internet users ‘to be wary of arguments from people in positions of authority’



‘A new world is revealed every day,’ researcher Etienne Klein had gushed, claiming the picture was of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our sun.


X (formerly Twitter)

Offbeat

France

French scientist reveals ‘space telescope image’ was actually slice of sausage

‘A new world is revealed every day,’ researcher Etienne Klein had gushed, claiming the picture was of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our sun He later admitted it was a joke aimed at warning internet users ‘to be wary of arguments from people in positions of authority’

‘A new world is revealed every day,’ researcher Etienne Klein had gushed, claiming the picture was of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our sun

He later admitted it was a joke aimed at warning internet users ‘to be wary of arguments from people in positions of authority’