A French scientist has apologized for a tweet claiming to show an image of a distant star taken by the James Webb Telescope. In fact, the object in the photo was less far from Earth: it turned out to be a piece of Spanish chorizo ​​sausage. Not many people understood the joke.

Etienne Klein, physicist and head of France’s Atomic Energy Authority, launched the spicy sausage to the world last weekend, accompanied by the announcement that it was a highly detailed image of “Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun.” 4.2 light-years of us.”

The photo was taken by the James Webb Telescope, according to Klein’s tweet, where NASA last month first pictures from common. With these images, the telescope provided the “deepest, most accurate infrared view” of the universe ever.

Thousands of Klein’s 90,000+ followers on his Twitter account took his post seriously and decided to share it on social media.

The joke did not last long. Soon, in a new series of tweets, Klein decided to admit that he wasn’t actually a distant superstar, but rather a close-up of a slice of chorizo ​​sausage on a black background.

The scientist admitted: “According to contemporary cosmology, there is nothing else that belongs to Spanish cured meat than on Earth.” “Given some of the comments, I feel compelled to explain that this tweet containing an purported shot of Proxima Centauri was a joke.”

A lesson can also be learned from Klein, his apology. “Let us learn to be wary of arguments of authority as well as of the spontaneous rhetoric of certain images.”

Want to see what real images from the James Webb Telescope look like? For example, the first color photo was revealed last month: