Who says physicists don't have a sense of humor?
A photo tweeted by a famous French physicist supposedly of Proxima Centauri by the James Webb Space Telescope was actually a slice of chorizo.
Étienne Klein, research director at France’s Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission posted the photo last week, claiming it showed the closest star to the sun. [snip]
Images from the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope, a collaboration between NASA and Canada and Europe’s space agencies, went viral throughout July as its first images were released to the public.
But a few days later, Klein revealed that the photo he tweeted was not the work of the world’s most powerful space telescope, as he had in fact tweeted a slice of chorizo sausage.
“According to contemporary cosmology, no object belonging to Spanish charcuterie exists anywhere but on Earth,” he said after apologising for tricking so many people. [snip]
Klein told French news outlet Le Point that his intention had been to educate people about fake news online, adding that “I also think that if I hadn't said it was a James Webb photo, it wouldn't have been so successful.”
This is why Hackwhackers only uses photos from the established NASA/ESA websites for it's popular Sunday night feature!! No filler there, no matter how you cut it!
(Photo: Étienne Klein, French physicist and amateur humorist)
