A scientist’s photo of a ‘distant star’ is actually a piece of chorizo

A French scientist has apologized after tweeting a photo of a fragment of Chorizo, claiming it was a deep-space image of a “distant star” taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.

Etienne Klein, Physicist and Director of Research at France’s Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, He shared the spicy Spanish sausage on social media last week, praising the “level of detail” it offered.

“This image of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun, 4.2 light-years away, was taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. This level of detail…a new world is revealed every day,” he tweeted. More than 91,000 followers on Sunday.

The first images of the $10 billion telescope — launched on December 25, 2021 — went viral throughout July when they were released to the public. Science Wonder, a joint project of NASA, the Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency, has traveled 1 million miles in space.

After his post, Klein revealed that the photo he tweeted was not from the world’s most powerful space telescope. He admitted to tweeting a piece of red, speckled meat.

“When it comes to aperitif time, cognitive biases seem to have a field day … so beware of them,” He played it up in more tweets. “According to modern cosmology, no substance belonging to the Spanish charcuterie exists anywhere but on Earth.”