Physicist Etienne Klein tweeted what he believed to be a new, sharp image from the James Webb Space Telescope over the weekend. Now he clarified: He made a joke and only photographed a piece of sausage.
A red fireball with glowing spots against a pitch-black background – an alleged image of the James Webb Space Telescope has turned out to be a slice of chorizo sausage. The author of the allegedly spectacular recording, the French physicist and philosopher of science Etienne Klein, explained that he was joking. On Wednesday, he apologized to everyone he misled.
Klein posted the image to Twitter on Sunday, claiming it was of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the sun. While other Twitter users were still admiring the details in the picture, the Huffington Post revealed that it was actually a slice of the spicy Spanish sausage.
With his post, he wanted to encourage caution against images that “appear meaningful on their own,” Klein explained on Twitter and apologized to anyone who might have been offended by a scientist’s “unoriginal” joke.
On Wednesday, the 64-year-old research director of the energy research institute CEA and producer of a French science program again posted a recording of the space telescope. The image of the Cartwheel Galaxy is real this time, he assured.
