The little joke dates from July 31. On his Twitter account, the scientist Etienne Klein publishes a captioned snapshot: “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.”
On the photo in question, we see a red sphere in relief with a black background. And if it is quite obvious that this photo actually represents a slice of charcuterie, Internet users quickly reacted, gullible, amused or angry. “Looks like a slice of chorizo…”, “Quoi ???”, “Indeed, the level of detail is astounding! I imagine that a photo of the planet orbiting around will follow. Revolutionary!”can we read in particular.
Etienne Klein also had to specify in another tweet that it was a “form of amusement” “when it’s aperitif time”. “No object relating to Spanish charcuterie exists elsewhere than on Earth”he finally jokes.