Top scientists' "space telescope" pranks
Étienne Klein, a prominent physicist and director of the French Commission on Alternative Energy and Atomic Energy, shared a picture of a spicy Spanish sausage with more than 91,000 followers on Twitter last week, claiming that it was an image of a distant star taken by the James Weber Space Telescope (JWST, which consists of 18 hexagonal mirror bodies) and praised it as "level of detail"...
The post was subsequently retweeted and commented on by thousands of users because they believed the scientist's words.
But things aren't as they seem...
Klein later admitted in a series of follow-up tweets that the photo was actually a close-up of a piece of sausage shot against a black background and was a prank (Figure 1).
After facing strong opposition from members of the online community against the prank, he wrote: "In light of certain comments, I feel obliged to state the true intent of this prank--- learn to be wary of and discern the views of authoritative positions."
On Wednesday, Clay apologized for the prank.
The Weber Telescope, the most powerful infrared observation telescope ever launched into space, is the successor to Hubble (HST) that officially began scientific operations on July 12 (Figures 2 and 3).
