A world-renowned French physicist was forced to apologize after tweeting out a picture of a slice of chorizo, claiming it was a picture of a distant star taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.
Etienne Klein decided to have some fun with his nearly 92,000 followers, tweeting out what seemed to be a high-resolution image of a star.
“Picture of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun, located 4.2 light years away from us. It was taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. This level of detail… A new world is unveiled everyday,” he tweeted in French.
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
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Just an hour later, after letting his followers indulge in the magnificence of the supposed extraterrestrial image, Klein replied to the tweet with a joking response.
“Well, when it’s cocktail hour, cognitive bias seem to find plenty to enjoy… Beware of it. According to contemporary cosmology, no object related to Spanish charcuterie exists anywhere else other than on Earth,” he wrote.
He was forced to clarify further several hours later, with many believing that he himself, a respected scientist of his field, had been duped by such a simple prank. He told his followers that actually it was meant as a joke all along, both for his own amusement and to teach a lesson about trusting arguments from positions of authority.
“In view of certain comments, I feel obliged to specify that this tweet showing an alleged picture of Proxima Centauri was a joke. Let’s learn to be wary of the arguments from positions of authority as much as the spontaneous eloquence of certain images,” he tweeted.
Au vu de certains commentaires, je me sens obligé de préciser que ce tweet montrant un prétendu cliché de Proxima du Centaure relevait d’une forme d’amusement. Apprenons à nous méfier des arguments d’autorité autant que de l’éloquence spontanée de certaines images….
— Etienne KLEIN (@EtienneKlein) July 31, 2022
Most of the responses to his original tweet delighted in the humor of the prank.
“And here is a nebula from which Proxima Centauri originated,” user New_Mike_75 captioned a picture of a chorizo link.
Et voici une nébuleuse d’où est issue Proxima du Centaure ? pic.twitter.com/8p2hVhdOl2
— Mike (@New_Mike_75) July 31, 2022
Nevertheless, several critics took issue with the scientist’s viral joke.
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“Coming from a scientific research director, it’s quite inappropriate to share this type of thing without specifying from the 1st tweet that it is false information when you know the speed at which a false information. :)” user alexis2000m tweeted.
Venant d’un directeur de recherche scientifique, c’est assez déplacé de partager ce type de chose sans préciser dès le 1er tweet qu’il s’agit d’une fausse information lorsqu’on sait la vitesse à laquelle peut être diffusée une fausse information. 🙂
— Alexis (@alexis2000m) July 31, 2022
