Etienne Klein, a renowned physicist and director at France’s Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, shared the image of the spicy Spanish sausage on Twitter last week, praising the “level of detail” it provides.
“Image of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun, located 4.2 light years away. It was taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. This level of detail… Every day a new world is revealed,” he told his more than 91,000 followers on Sunday.
The post was retweeted and commented on by thousands of users who took the scientist at his word.
However, things were not exactly what they seemed.
Klein later admitted in a series of follow-up tweets that the image was actually a close-up of a piece of chorizo against a black background.
“Well, when it’s cocktail hour, cognitive biases seem to find something to feast on… Beware of it. According to modern cosmology, no object associated with Spanish sausages exists anywhere but on Earth.”
After facing backlash from members of the online community for the joke, he wrote: “In light of some of the comments, I feel obliged to clarify that this tweet showing an alleged photo of Proxima Centauri is a joke. Let us learn to beware of arguments from positions of authority, as well as the spontaneous eloquence of certain images.”
On Wednesday, Klein apologized for the hoax, saying his intent was “to urge caution around images that appear to speak for themselves.”
In an attempt 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 began scientific operations on July 12. It will be able to peer into the atmospheres of exoplanets and observe some of the first galaxies formed after the creation of the universe by observing them through infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye.
CNN’s Amandine Hess, Xiaofei Xu and Joseph Ataman contributed to this report.
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