A physicist thrilled Twitter fans this week with a stunning new photo from the James Webb Space Telescope, then surprised everyone by admitting it was just a slice of delicious chorizo.
Etienne Klein, director of France’s Alternative Energy and Atomic Energy Commission, shared the alleged views. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) photo taken on July 31. The image shows a round red-orange object on a black background that looks like the appearance of a star.
“Fig next centaur, nearest star the sun, located at a distance of 4.2 light years from us. It was picked up by JWST,” Klein said He wrote on Twitter (opens in new tab), according to Google Translate. “This level of detail… A new world is revealed every day.”
Gallery: The first photographs of the James Webb Space Telescope
Image of Proxima du Centaure, l’étoile la plus proche du Soleil, located at 4.2 année-lumière de nous.Elle a été prize par le JWST. pic.twitter.com/88UBbHDQ7ZJuly 31, 2022
Klein’s photo went viral, garnering 19,000 likes and more than 3,000 retweets, prompting the scientist to clarify that the image was not from the famous James Webb Space Telescope. the first scientific photographs were published by NASA in July. Instead, it was a slice of Spanish sausage chorizo.
“Well, cognitive biases seem to be having a field day when it’s aperitif time…” Klein added. the next tweet (opens in new tab). “According to contemporaries cosmologyThere is no such thing as a Spanish charcuterie anywhere else on Earth.”
Klein’s tweet apparently drew some angry comments from JWST fans, who called on the scientist to clarify that it was meant to be in good fun.
“Given some of the comments, I have to clarify that this tweet showing an alleged image of Proxima Centauri is a form of entertainment.” hey he wrote (opens in new tab). “Let us learn to beware of arguments from authority, as of the spontaneous eloquence of some characters.”
It’s no surprise that Klein’s alleged JWST image gained such a wide audience. In July, NASA released the first science images from the new space observatory — the largest and most powerful space telescope mankind has ever built — and new images have been rolling in ever since.
NASA launched the $10 billion JWST in December 2021 on a mission to see the first stars and galaxies in our universe. So far, images from JWST have emerged supernova surprise, the most distant star we can see (which is called Earendel), the Amazing view of Cartwheel galaxya dizzying phantom galaxy and the deepest view of the universe we’ve ever seen.
Email Tariq Malik tmalik@space.com (opens in new tab) or follow him @tariqjmalik (opens in new tab). follow us @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab), A fan (opens in new tab)Chelectronic book and Instagram (opens in new tab).
