Who would have thought a James Webb Space Telescope joke told by a Frenchman would fail to get a laugh?
A top boffin has had to apologise after he published a joke about the James Webb Space Telescope on Twitter.
Physicist Etienne Kelin uploaded a photo of a slice of Chorizo, claiming it to be a “photo of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun, located 4.2 light years from us.” The image shows a black, space-like background behind a red object of swirling colours, strange-looking ‘gases’, and odd markings.
Stating it was an image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, Etienne joked: “This level of detail… A new world is revealed day after day.”
While we thought it rather funny, Klein’s audience is not renowned for its sense of humour. He is a French Physicist two categories which suggest a sense of humour has been removed at birth. And his readers expect as much.
One person wrote: “The joke is funny. But when it is published by you, it becomes huge! Your name provides a guarantee so that it does not seem necessary to verify the information!”
Klein’s later revealed the photo was a joke, and added: “According to contemporary cosmology, no object belonging to Spanish charcuterie exists anywhere but on Earth.”
Klein’s said: “In view of some comments, I feel compelled to clarify that this tweet showing an alleged snapshot of Proxima Centauri was a form of amusement. Let us learn to be wary of arguments from authority as much as of the spontaneous eloquence of certain images.”
