Physicist Apologizes for Passing Sausage Slice as Star Photo

A French physicist went viral after joking that a slice of chorizo was an image from the James Webb telescope. He had to apologize when the prank spiraled out of control across social media.

A renowned French physicist found himself in an unexpected situation after his scientific prank took on a life of its own on social media. Etienne Klein had shared an image of a sliced sausage against a black background, claiming it was an actual photograph of Proxima Centauri, the star closest to our Sun.

Klein posted the image on Twitter with an enthusiastic caption: "Photo of Proxima Centauri, the star nearest to the Sun, located 4.2 light-years from us. Captured by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). What incredible detail... A new world reveals itself day after day." The post quickly gained traction, accumulating 1,334 retweets and over 10,000 likes, with major outlets like HuffPost amplifying the reach.

By Wednesday, Klein recognized the need to come clean. "I apologize to those who were disappointed by my prank, which was admittedly not original. My intention was simply to encourage caution about images that seem to speak for themselves," he wrote in a follow-up tweet.

The physicist expressed genuine surprise at how far the joke had traveled. "I was amazed by how widely it spread. I thought the image would be immediately recognized as false. When I saw that a prominent journalist from BFMTV was enthusiastically sharing it, I told him it was a joke. He took it with good humor."

Klein defended the value of his experiment, explaining that "a false claim has educational merit. It speaks to our capacity to be deceived and questions our relationship with our sources." His broader message highlighted the critical importance of verifying information before sharing it across digital platforms, offering an unexpected but meaningful lesson about media literacy in our connected world.