Scientist shares new ‘star’ photo — but admits it’s actually much closer to home
A prominent French scientist is apologizing after he posted a photo of what he called “the closest star to the Sun.”
That’s because it turned out to be something much tastier instead.
In the photo, posted July 31 to Twitter, a deep red orb with patches of orange swirling inside seemed to glow against an all-black background.
Claiming the photo came from the James Webb Telescope, the scientist, Etienne Klein, accompanied the image with this message: “This level of detail… A new world is revealed day after day.”
Except the photo was not of the star Proxima Centauri.
It was a slice of chorizo, a spicy Spanish sausage, Klein admitted in a later tweet.
Many people did not get the joke, The Local reported, and some who did criticized the scientist for misleading people at a time when scientific communities are “battling fake news.”
Klein, who is a research director at France’s Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, said the photo was a “form of amusement.
“Let us learn to be wary of arguments from authority as much as of the spontaneous eloquence of certain images,” he added.
“According to contemporary cosmology,” Klein said in another tweet, “no object belonging to Spanish charcuterie exists anywhere but on Earth.”
A few days later, Klein issued an apology, saying “I come to present my apologies to those whom my hoax, which had nothing original about it, may have shocked.”
Proxima Centauri, the star referenced in Klein’s tweet, is the closest star to Earth, according to NASA. It is part of the Centaurus constellation but is not visible to the naked eye because of its comparatively low brightness.
This story was originally published August 5, 2022 at 8:28 AM with the headline "Scientist shares new ‘star’ photo — but admits it’s actually much closer to home."
