A James Webb tweet, written as a joke, went viral on Twitter. But it is certain that this tweet was not generally received very positively.
Simultaneously with the release of stunning new images from the James Webb telescope, prominent French physicist Étienne Klein tweeted a vibrant red circle illuminated against a sharp black background. Klein, now director at the French Atomic Energy Commission, wrote that this is a new image from JWST showing Proxima Centauri: “The photo of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun, is located 4.2 light-years from us. withdrawn…”
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
But soon after, he explained that the image wasn’t actually from JWST and was actually a slice of Spanish sausage. While this joke drew backlash from many of his followers, he suggested that his post was an attempt to challenge people’s cognitive biases.
Unfortunately, not everyone saw the funny side of his critical thinking class. Given Klein’s references, many didn’t realize it was a joke and blindly shared the image. This resulted in some accusing him of spreading false information and fake news.
After all this, Klein apologized for the joke and described it as “a scientist’s joke”.
A few days later, Klein’s fingers were back on Twitter, tweeting a gorgeous JWST image of the coral-red Cartwheel galaxy about 500 million light-years from us. This time, saying the photo isn’t sausage and swearing it’s real…
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