These stunning images of distant galaxies captured by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), open up our horizons about the universe. But recently, there was a photo that claimed to be a star image which turned out to be just a sausage photo.
On July 31, France's Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission Director tienne Klein, shared an image he claimed was taken by JWST of Proxima Centauri, the closest known star to the Sun.
"This image was taken by the James Webb Space Telescope," Klein told his more than 91,000 followers on Twitter.
"At this level of detail, new worlds are revealed every day," he said as quoted by us from the Twitter account @EtienneKlein. Thousands of people retweeted and liked the post.
Photo de Proxima du Centaure, l'étoile la plus proche du Soleil, située 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 a few days later, Klein said that what he shared was actually a photo of a piece of chorizo or sausage on a black background.
"Given the many comments, I feel obligated to reveal that the tweet that I called the Proxima Centauri image was a joke," Klein said.
He apologized for the joke and said the purpose of posting the image was to educate the public about the threat of hoaxes and how easy it is for people to spread fake news.
"I also think that if I didn't say it was a photo of James Webb, the tweet wouldn't have caught the attention of netizens," he said.
After clarifying, Klein shared a recent image that was actually taken by JWST of the Cartwheel galaxy. This time he convinced his followers that the photo was the original shot by JWST.