A BFMTV journalist confused a chorizo ​​with a star discovered by NASA

Aficionados of space discoveries have been on the lookout since July. And for good reason, the NASA space telescope, called James Webb, is currently on an expedition in the galaxy. A veritable observatory, the infrared device sends breathtaking images that NASA broadcasts on social networks, including Twitter. It is moreover the American organization which affirmed that there were not 12 but 13 signs of the zodiac. Faced with these clichés that go around the world, thanks to the speed of the Internet, a scientist wanted to have fun with the situation. This Sunday, July 31, 2022, Etienne Klein, physicist and research director, also posted an image dazzling in its rarity.

A scientist replaces a star with a slice of chorizo

“Photo of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun, located 4.2 light years from us. This level of detail… A New World is revealed day after day”wrote Etienne Klein, in caption of a photo posted on Twitter. On the image, we see a red star with white spots, on a black background (space). A shot that impressed Internet users, according to the 10,000 likes. Problem, this is a … Huge deception. Indeed, in a second tweet, the physicist revealed that it was a prank. “Sccording to contemporary cosmology, no object belonging to Spanish charcuterie exists anywhere but on Earth. I feel compelled to clarify that this tweet showing an alleged snapshot of Proxima Centauri was a form of amusement”, he explained. Indeed, the scientist had simply photographed a slice of chorizo, to make believe that it was a famous star…

“The good news is that some understood the deception right away, but it also took two tweets to clarify. It illustrates the fact that on this type of social network, fake news is always more successful than real news (…) I come to apologize to those whom my hoax, which was in no way original, may have shocked . He simply wanted to urge caution with images that seem eloquent on their own. », he explained to justify his bad joke. For his part, Ulysse Gosset, political journalist for BFMTV, literally fell into the trap. On his Twitter account, he reacted to Etienne Klein’s tweet, commenting: “The new James Webb telescope is doing wonders”. Upon learning of the scientist’s joke, he immediately reacted publicly, “Summer gag! The Proxima star was a slice of chorizo”.