Étienne Klein, a famous French physicist, shared an image of what he said was Proxima Centauri, the closest star to Earth. He said the photo was taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, which has revealed many stunning images in recent weeks. “This level of detail…” he wrote. “A new world is revealed day by day.” At first glance, the image looked legitimate, showing the deep red and swirling white colors of a star. But on closer inspection, the image was something rather more down-to-earth: a piece of chorizo on a black background. About an hour after he first sent the tweet, Dr. Klein clarified that he was joking. He quipped that when people were hungry they succumbed to cognitive biases – and that people should know that. “According to modern cosmology, no object belonging to the Spanish deli exists anywhere but on Earth,” he continued. Then, hours after the original post, he said he had to respond to comments that seemed to suggest he had made a mistake himself. He said the image was a “form of entertainment” and once instead reminded his followers that they should be suspicious of both the arguments of authority and the persuasive nature of such images. However, many of Dr. Klein’s followers seemed to believe that he was being irresponsible in trying to fool people. One noted that it was important to be able to trust scientists, precisely to avoid being manipulated by false stories, and that many people would have seen his original post, but not the subsequent clarifications. The joke also appeared to be made by several other Twitter users before Dr. Klein posted it, with other users berating the scientist for not giving credit for the original joke. A few days later, Dr. Klein was still apologizing for what he had done. He said he wanted to apologize to anyone who was shocked by the prank and admitted his joke was not original. He reiterated that by posting the photo he only meant to make people wary of spectacular images that were not properly framed. Dr. Klein also tweeted a copy of the distant Cartwheel galaxy, which he pointed out was real this time.
