Saturday, August 6, 2022

Across The Universe (Or The Charcuterie Board)



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!

(PhotoÉtienne Klein, French physicist and amateur humorist)


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