French scientist mistaken: distant star turns out to be a slice of chorizo

For a moment I thought De Speld had posted another comical news story, but it turned out not to be from De Speld. It really was there: French scientist Étienne Klein blasted a tweet into space featuring a photo of the star ‘Proxima Centauri’, but it turned out to be a slice of chorizo.

A mistake—though a star this far away does look just like a slice of chorizo, doesn’t it?—or a really good joke that people fell for en masse? “The star closest to the sun, located 4.2 million light-years from us,” he wrote alongside the photo, making it all seem very real. But it wasn’t: Proxima Centauri turned out to be a big, and rather successful, joke.

Whether you like sausage

A great many people retweeted the photo, forcing Étienne Klein to quickly issue a correction. He did so in a witty way once again: “According to modern cosmology, this Spanish sausage exists only on Earth,” was his response.

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

Good punchline

After his funny tweet, he did have a serious message: “Continue to view anyone who speaks with authority critically, and beware of the persuasive power of certain images.” And I think that is a really good punchline, because using your common sense is more important than ever nowadays in a world of fake news and misleading information.

Source: Vice, RTL Nieuws

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