French Physicist's Beautiful Proxima Centauri Photo Turns Out to Be a Piece of Chorizo - IGN:
Earlier this [last] week, French physicist Etienne Klein seemed to post a photo of Proxima Centauri, the closest known star to our own, located some 4.2 light years away. The photo was gorgeous and quickly amassed thousands of likes.
There was just one problem: the photo was actually just a bit of chorizo.
As translated by IGN, Klein originally posted the photo with the caption, "Closest photo of Proxima Centauri, the star that's closest to the sun, located 4.2 light years away from us. It was taken by the [James Webb Space Telescope]. This level of detail...a new world is revealed day after day."
It quickly emerged that the photo was fake; one scientist's practical joke.
"Well, when it's time for the aperitif, cognitive biases seem to have a field day, so watch out for them," Klein tweeted. "According to the contemporary cosmology, no object belonging to Spanish charcuterie exists anywhere but on Earth."
He then warned against online misinformation. "When seeing certain comments, I feel an obligation to specify the tweet showing an alleged snapshot of Proxima Centauri was a form of amusement. After this we have to beware of arguments from authority as much as the spontaneous eloquence of certain images."
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 09 2022, @12:45AM (2 children)
But then again, they were French
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 09 2022, @03:51AM (1 child)
Fat chance [wikipedia.org] of that.
Of course, it is hard to be that humor-impaired as the usians (good things those canned laughs exists [youtube.com])
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 09 2022, @05:00AM
It's actually a good point made by the French guy. Similar joke made 2 weeks ago on another site [landoverbaptist.net].
Competitive funding environment leads to "spectacle" science aka marketing. Science beholden to commercial pressures rather than as a check on falsehoods. Similar trend in the 4th Estate checks and balances on power. By arranging our system of government so that The Money is always right we give all power to The Money (plutocracy). We are presently in the process of seeing how this experiment turns out... Bon courage, les amis.
(Score: 1, Informative) by GloomMower on Tuesday August 09 2022, @01:08AM (13 children)
"It was a social experiment!"
(Score: 1, Insightful) by aafcac on Tuesday August 09 2022, @01:16AM (10 children)
Perhaps, but I can completely understand why people were fooled, that image doesn't really look that much different from other images that have really been taken of planets. I think the biggest things are that there's no apparent stars and the shapes are kind of oddly sharp.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by FatPhil on Tuesday August 09 2022, @04:32AM (7 children)
I initially, on hearing about the prank, thought "what an idiot, science already has a fragile reputation", but then I saw the image, and I laughed out loud. Anyone who believed it was a space photo was a fucking moron. And didn't like being considered a fucking moron. So blamed the scientist for showing them up as a fucking moron.
If the brief downward blip of wellbeing caused by the stresses of the shame of being found out as a fucking moron can be a stimulus for betterment of critical thinking skills, then this would be a useful learning opportunity. However, I suspect there are only two chances of that happening: fat chance, and slim chance.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 09 2022, @05:10AM (3 children)
Science already has a fragile reputation because it deserves it. You may think of science as truth or reality but it is also subject to market forces.
There's a fascinating article (also French) titled How has neoliberalism weakened science? [cairn.info]. Well worth a read.
Also read this piece [currentaffairs.org] on what is happening in universities. In short, science is barely hanging on and only insofar as it serves a commercial interest. Perhaps a good thing, perhaps not. But certainly science does not any high moral status - which you can verify yourself by doing a grad degree in any institution of your choice.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday August 09 2022, @11:09AM (2 children)
In other words, we're blaming the failure of massive public funding of science on a few of the interests that are preserving science. In support of my argument, I'll note the utterly unprecedented public funding of science since the end of the Second World War and your claim that commercial interests are the only ones producing science.
We can complain about neoliberalism. Or we can look at what works and what doesn't.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 09 2022, @07:45PM (1 child)
Cherry-picked time frame, as expected from this author.
I accept there is substantial public funding. BUT - where is it going? If you are in a university system you will quickly notice vast layers of management dedicated to acquiring funding and a trickle of piss for any actual working scientists. It's the Great Man theory; the Great Man is the one who excels in marketing... sorry, grantsmanship, and specializes in navigating the bureaucratic maze to gets on the government teat.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday August 09 2022, @09:35PM
From the end of the Second World War till now. That time frame wide enough for you?
Science, obviously. \sarc You some kind of communist?
You describe a symptom not a cause.
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Tuesday August 09 2022, @07:40AM
I'm not sure if I believed it at first, or not - it was one of those things I just glanced at and glossed over.
It's surprising how, with a little photoshopping, a piece of chorizo can look like a turbulent star.
Honestly, it was a hilarious prank!
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by aafcac on Tuesday August 09 2022, @12:06PM (1 child)
I take it you haven't looked at many astrophotographs then. There is no real context by which somebody would know one way or another if they don't spend a bunch of time looking at these sorts of images. These are definitely not things that we come across in daily living and you're likely either lying or fooling yourself if you think you would have spotted the difference without knowing what the image was actually of. Having taken a few pics of the sun, this doesn't look that much different than some of the ones I've gotten.
This sort of thing is a large part of why people hate scientists and one of the main reasons, other than paid propagandists, that people won't trust predictions about the future.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday August 09 2022, @10:10PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 09 2022, @06:28AM (1 child)
Other than reddened images of the Sun, the only thing that comes close are the detailed VLT images of stars.
https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1741/?lang [eso.org]
Improve on that and we will find the space chorizo.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by aafcac on Tuesday August 09 2022, @12:09PM
Yes, and how many non-scientists are looking at enough of these photos to have any idea? And that's the point. Somebody who doesn't spend time looking at these sorts of photos isn't going to know that and it's not exactly unlikely that somewhere in the universe there is a planetary body that has a similar pattern to it. Expecting people that don't spend a bunch of time looking at these sorts of images to know that is asking a lot. It's not really that much different from expecting people that aren't following celebrity news to know, or care about, the difference between the Kardashians.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 09 2022, @01:24AM
Seems only fair then that they should let Social Scientists into their lab to do physics experiments.
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Tuesday August 09 2022, @02:28PM
He was trying to teach you a lesson, a lesson you haven't seemed to learn.
SMH. disappointed in the online fact-checking of Twitter here. An easily verifiable falsehood and it slipped right by their Fair, Objective, Final-Word fact checking department. Oh well at least we know they are right and correct in every other fact checking decision they make. Praise tha lawwwyd!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by stretch611 on Tuesday August 09 2022, @03:24AM
MMmmmm, chorizo
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 3, Informative) by maxwell demon on Tuesday August 09 2022, @09:13AM
In case someone wants to see the photo without lowering their shields, see here:
https://pop.inquirer.net/331170/french-physicists-proxima-centauri-photo-is-actually-a-piece-of-chorizo [inquirer.net]
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.