French astrollnomer shared a chorizo picture as an image of Proxima Centauri taken from the James Webb

(Twitter / @etienneklein https://bit.ly/3p2t1x8)

Fake news sometimes is dangerous, sometimes funny.

Etienne Klein, the research director of the French Commissariat for Atomic Energy and Alternative Energy Sources played a prank on Twitter users.

He passed off a photograph of a slice of chorizo sausage as an image of the disk of the star Proxima Centauri obtained by the James Webb telescope.

Klein said he wanted to show how easily unverified scientific information can spread through social networks.

Proxima Centauri is the closest star to our solar system, located 4.24 light years away.

This red dwarf is because an earth-like exoplanet Proxima b orbits located in the habitable zone

The star also has two more exoplanet candidates, located closer and farther from the dwarf than Proxima respectively.

The prank
On July 31 Klein published on his Twitter a picture of what he called “the image of the disk of Proxima Centauri obtained by the new James Webb infrared space observatory”

The tweet with the image was shared and commented on several thousand times before the scientist admitted that it was a joke, and the photo showed a slice of chorizo sausage. LOL.

After being criticized, Klein said he wanted to demonstrate how easy it is for fake information to spread on social media.

He also urged caution against statements made even (and specially) by reputable people.

Astronomers can obtain images of the disks of other stars.

They use interferometers combining several telescopes into one huge one, and making observations in the optical, millimeter or radio ranges.

However, Proxima Centauri has an angular diameter of one thousandth of a second of arc.

(Artistic representation of Proxima b / ESO/M. Kornmesser)

This is less than the resolution of Webb's scientific instruments, so the star will be a point source of radiation for the telescope.

The observatory will also not be able to distinguish between Proxima b because the exoplanet is tiny and it's too close to its star.

However, the Webb can probe the atmospheres of exoplanets during transit events, detecting the radiation of the parent star that has passed through the atmospheres

The telescope can also image exoplanets the size of Jupiter or Neptune, which are sufficiently separated from their stars.

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French astrollnomer shared a chorizo picture ​​as an image of Proxima Centauri taken from the James Webb

French astrollnomer shared a chorizo picture as an image of Proxima Centauri taken from the James Webb