French Physicist Shares Fake Photo Of 'Red Star Nearest To Sun’. Guess What It Actually Is

A French scientist recently shared a picture on Twitter, claiming it to be a photograph of the Proxima Centauri captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. However, he later revealed that it was fake.

A French scientist recently shared a picture on Twitter, claiming it to be a photograph of the Proxima Centauri captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. Proxima Centauri is the nearest star to the Sun, and is located 4.22 light-years away from Earth.  ( Image Source :Twitter/@EtienneKlein )

A French physicist recently shared a picture on Twitter, claiming it to be a photograph of the Proxima Centauri captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. Proxima Centauri is the nearest star to the Sun, and is located 4.22 light-years away from Earth. 

Etienne Klein, Research Director at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), appreciated the level of detail in the picture. "This level of detail... A new world is revealed day after day," he wrote. 

Photo de Proxima du Centaure, l’étoile la plus proche du Soleil, située à 4,2 année-lumière de nous.
Elle a été prise par le JWST.
Ce niveau de détails… Un nouveau monde se dévoile jour après jour. pic.twitter.com/88UBbHDQ7Z

— Etienne KLEIN (@EtienneKlein) July 31, 2022

However, to everyone's surprise, Klein later revealed that the picture was not of Proxima Centauri, but a photograph of a popular sausage called Spanish chorizo, captured against a black background. 

"According to contemporary cosmology, no object belonging to Spanish charcuterie exists anywhere on Earth," Klein wrote sarcastically. Charcuterie is a French term used to refer to cold cooked meats. 

Bon, quand sonne l’heure de l’apéritif, les biais cognitifs semblent s’en donner à cœur joie… Gare, donc, à eux. Selon la cosmologie contemporaine, nul objet relevant de la charcuterie espagnole n’existe ailleurs que sur Terre.

— Etienne KLEIN (@EtienneKlein) July 31, 2022

Klein also said that his purpose behind sharing the image was to warn people to be "wary of arguments" from those in positions of authority, and also of the "spontaneous eloquence of certain images". In other words, the scientist shared a fake photograph of Proxima Centauri to assert the fact that people should not believe everything they see on the internet, even if they are shared by those in positions of authority.

Klein's post has left netizens divided, with some people taking the "scientist's joke" with a grain of salt, and others becoming furious. 

The scientist has apologised to those who may have been "shocked" by the hoax, and described his post as a "scientist's joke". 

A Twitter user posted a picture of fusilli, a form of pasta with a helical shape, and wrote that this was a picture of DNA, which has a double-helix structure. "Maybe it pairs well with this (not a real) picture of DNA," the user wrote, quoting Klein's tweet.

Maybe it pairs well with this (not a real) picture of DNA. https://t.co/7IxiPaXXuf pic.twitter.com/1bA1PoLTMt

— Patrick Deelen (@PatrickDeelen) August 6, 2022

Another Twitter user shared a video of herself performing a rendition of the famous 90s song "Black Hole Sun", replacing the phrase "Black hole sun" with "chorizo". 

Ever since I heard about the French researcher who tried to pass off a slice of chorizo as a distant sun on Twitter, I've had this 90s grunge classic in my head. 😎🤘 pic.twitter.com/pdV1ktDocP

— Amie Burke (@amieburkeabomb) August 8, 2022

"Why does humor need to be excused, especially when it's not making fun of anyone," a Twitter user wrote.

Pourquoi l'humour a-t-il besoin d'être excusé, surtout lorsqu'il ne se moque de personne ?

— Res Publica (@lazare_hoche) August 3, 2022

"I found this joke great. Do not apologize," a user said, replying to Klein's apology. 

J’ai trouvé cette blague géniale. Ne vous excusez pas.

— Richard Kevin (@Richard28516779) August 3, 2022

However, Klein's joke did not go well with a climate change researcher, who called it a "disgraceful conduct".

"The public's trust in scientists is at an all-time low (eg. antivax and anti-mask groups) and you're pulling stunts like this that further undermine the works of scientists as a whole," the researcher wrote.

This is disgraceful conduct. The public's trust in scientists is at an all-time low (e.g. antivax and anti-mask groups) and you're pulling stunts like this that further undermine the works of scientists as a whole

— Andrew Leung, Ph.D (@OhanaUnited) August 6, 2022

A few days after sharing the picture of the chorizo, Klein posted a photograph of the Chariot Wheel Galaxy and its companion galaxies captured by Webb, claiming that this time, the photo was "real".