Nasa announced on Monday that researchers have found flowing water on Mars, raising the odds of finding life on the planet. On the internet, this impressive discovery was celebrated with due gravity – or indeed a lack of it.
Among other things, the news prompted the internet to offer a picture of a glass of water sitting on top of a Mars bar.
OMG Water on Mars confirmed pic.twitter.com/qiWGHFCwOx
— Revitalize (@Revitalize) September 28, 2015
While this image was quickly shared across social media, Nasa’s Monday press conference was not in fact the genesis of the “water on top of a Mars bar” meme. A similar image can be seen here, on a message board in a post dated 17 February 2008; and here, on a website for molecular modeling software.
For those seeking some more original online reaction to Monday’s announcement, Twitter produced a flurry of jokes tied to California’s drought and the environmental degradation of the Earth.
Be careful with that water, Mars, or before you know it you'll be taking 3-minute showers and there won't be any more almonds.
— Ryan Greenberg (@greenberg) September 28, 2015
QUICK LEAVE YOUR GARBAGE EVERYWHERE FOR A HUNDRED YEARS
— Scaachi (@Scaachi) September 28, 2015
More serious online personalities chose to use the moment to dispel the notion that this was the first time water had been found on Mars. In March, scientists announced that a primitive ocean once existed on the red planet – and that was just the latest in a series of findings that have shown evidence of water.
Undaunted, some internet users provided a different kind of historical context to the discovery:
Remember in 2000 when they found a copy of "Oops!...I Did It Again" on the surface of Mars? pic.twitter.com/AMTphF9qoq
— T. Kyle (@tkylemac) September 28, 2015
Others saw an opportunity to guess how human ingenuity could build on this scientific revelation:
"We can have wet t-shirts on Mars!" -- a strip club owner named Stu, who is also a "futurist."
— Chris Regan (@ChrisRRegan) September 28, 2015
if there IS life on Mars the first thing they better do is take away Bill Cosbys honorary degree
— Matt Oswalt (@puddinstrip) September 28, 2015
Moon: Super Mars: Has water Earth: Three more Fast & Furious movies
— Chase Mitchell (@ChaseMit) September 28, 2015
Nor was the strangely coincidental timing of the announcement lost on Twitter users – the news came just before the release of the Matt Damon film The Martian, which is filled with Nasa branding:
Water is flowing on Mars. Thank you so much for everything, Matt Damon. Come home soon.
— Jimmy Whetzel (@JimmyWhetzel) September 28, 2015
Finally, many took the announcement as an opportunity to brace themselves and face what, in Britain at least, humanity hath wrought:
Running water found on mars, Protests at cereal bars, The Moon is turning blood red, Cameron boned a pig head, WE DIDN'T START THE FIRE
— Rhys James (@rhysjamesy) September 28, 2015
