The star turns out to be a slice of chorizo, a scientist apologizes for a joke

Klein is a physicist and works at the French nuclear commission. He shared a colorful photo of the “Proxima Centauri” on his Twitter account on July 31.

“The closest star to the sun is 4.2 million light-years away,” he wrote. The photo, he said, was taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. This new telescope reached its final destination in the universe earlier this year, where it will observe for decades to come.

Many people took the tweet seriously and shared the photo on their own accounts. But another post soon followed from Klein, admitting the photo in one issue showed a slice of sausage, not a star. “According to modern cosmology, this Spanish sausage is only found on Earth,” admitted the scientist.

Be on our guard

Hours later, Klein went into more detail with a new tweet. “In light of some comments, I feel compelled to clarify that my tweet about a so-called Proxima Centauri photo was a joke,” he wrote.

He also apologized for the prank. Even if, according to him, we can above all learn a lesson from it. “Keep looking critically at someone who speaks with authority and be wary of the expressiveness of certain images.