"I come to apologize to those whom my hoax, which had nothing original, may have offended. It simply wanted to urge caution with regard to images that seem eloquent on their own," tweeted Monday evening Etienne Klein, physicist and philosopher of science.
On Sunday, the French scientist posted a photo of a slice of chorizo against a black background, claiming it was an image of the closest star to the Sun, taken with the brand new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
"Photo of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun, located 4.2 light years away from us. It was taken by the JWST. This level of detail… A new world is unfolding day by day", commented Etienne Klein above the photo on a tweet.
Director of research at the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), Etienne Klein, 64, is also the producer of the radio program "Science en questions" on France Culture.
His publication, revealed by the online media HuffPost, has been widely shared on social networks in recent hours.
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