“The image of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun, located 4.2 light-years away. Taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. This level of detail… A new world is revealed every day,” he told more than 91,000 followers on Sunday. The post was retweeted and commented on by thousands of users, who took the scientist at his word. Things, however, were not as they seemed. Klein later admitted in a series of tweets that the image was, in fact, a close-up of a slice of chorizo shot against a black background. “Well, when it’s cocktail hour, the cognitive bias seems to find a lot to enjoy…Caution. According to modern cosmology, no object related to Spanish charcuterie exists anywhere else but on Earth.” After facing backlash from members of the online community for the prank, he wrote: “In light of some comments, I feel compelled to clarify that this tweet showing an alleged photo of Proxima Centauri was a joke. Let’s learn to be wary of arguing from positions power as much as the spontaneous eloquence of certain images’. On Wednesday, Klein apologized for the prank, saying his intention was “to prompt attention to images that seem to speak for themselves.” In an attempt to make amends, he posted an image of the spectacular Cartwheel galaxy, assuring followers that this time the photo was genuine. The Webb Telescope, the most powerful telescope ever launched into space, officially began its science operations on July 12. It will be able to peer into the atmospheres of exoplanets and observe some of the first galaxies formed after the universe began by seeing them through infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye. CNN’s Amandine Hess, Xiaofei Xu and Joseph Ataman contributed to this report.
