Silly sausage! French physicist forced to apologise for 'planet' photo that was a snap of chorizo - Daily Mail

A prominent French physicist has been forced to apologise for a photograph that he said was from NASA's new space telescope but which was in fact a piece of chorizo.

Etienne Klein, a renowned philosopher and research director at the French Atomic Energy Commission, informed his followers that 'no object belonging to Spanish charcuterie exists anywhere but on Earth.'.

He had posted a tweet last Sunday that he claimed was the latest astonishing photograph from the cutting edge James Webb Space Telescope of the star Proxima Centauri.

'Photo of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun, located 4.2 light years from us,' Klein tweeted. .

This is the picture which Etienne Klein, a renowned physicist, philosopher and research director at the French Atomic Energy Commission, posted to Twitter claiming - as a joke - that it was the latest astonishing photograph from the cutting edge James Webb Space Telescope of the star Proxima Centauri.

Etienne Klein, a renowned philosopher and research director at the French Atomic Energy Commission.

'The last photo of Proxima Centauri was this,' said one user, posting a photo of a distant star

'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,' he tweeted to his 89,200 followers. 

Prior to that he posted the James Webb Space Telescope's capture of the Chariot Wheel galaxy and its companion galaxies, ('REAL this time')