(CNN)French scientist tweets a picture of a slice of chorizo after it's an image of a distant star and apologized. James Webb Space Telescope.
Etienne Klein, a noted physicist and director of France's Commission for Alternative Energy and Atomic Energy, shared an image of a spicy Spanish sausage on Twitter last week, citing the "level of detail" provided. ” praised.
"A picture of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun, 4.2 light-years from us. Taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. This level of detail... A new world revealed every day." ', he told his more than 91,000 followers on Sunday.
Photo de Proxima du Centaure, l'étoile la plus proche du Soleil, située à 4,2 année-lumière de nous.
— Etienne Klein (@EtienneKlein) July 31, 2022
Elle a été Prize par le JWST.
Ce niveau de détails... Un nouveau monde se dévoile jour après jour. pic.twitter.com/ 88UBbHDQ7Z
This post has been retweeted to discredit the scientist. Thousands of users commented.
But things weren't quite what they seemed.
Later in his series of follow-up tweets, Klein acknowledged that the image was actually his close-up of a slice of chorizo, taken against a black background. I was.
"Well, when it's cocktail time, cognitive biases seem to find a lot of fun... mind you. Things do not exist outside of Earth.”
After facing backlash from members of the online community over the prank, he wrote: As with the spontaneous eloquence of certain images, be wary of arguments from positions of authority.
On Wednesday, Klein apologized for the hoax, saying his intention was "to call attention to an image that appears to speak for itself." To make amends, he posted an image of the spectacular cartwheel galaxy, assuring his followers that this time the photo was real.
The Webb Telescope, the most powerful telescope ever launched into space, officially entered scientific operation on July 12. It peers into the atmosphere of an exoplanet and explores space. We can observe some of the first galaxies formed after the beginning of the Universe by looking at them through the infrared, which is invisible to the human eye.
