Twitter Reacts to NASA's Mystery Moon Announcement

NASA has teased that it will announce "an exciting new discovery" about the moon next Monday—and some Twitter users are concerned. It's no secret: 2020 has been a lot. With unprecedented wildfires, a threat of World War 3, President Donald Trump being impeached, Harvey Weinstein's conviction, mass stock market crashes, a breakup of the Royal Family, the passings of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Kobe Bryant and Chadwick Boseman, murder hornets and a global virus pandemic that is still raging—the residents of Earth have already been through quite a bit. So when the space agency vaguely teased a "one more thing" on Wednesday about the moon—the natural satellite orbiting our planet that is pretty critical to life as we know it—it was easy to see why some were left feeling more uneasy than excited. Exact details about the announcement remained a mystery on Thursday morning, with NASA describing the news as including "new science results." "Nasa vagueposting about the moon as if we don't all have enough to panic about right now wow read the room," wrote YouTuber Daniel Howell, summing up the vibe. To combat this by-now standard emotion, Twitter users did what they do best: venting via memes, jokes and snarky comments. Here are some of the best and most popular reactions about NASA's moon announcement on the social media platform so far: While much remains a mystery, NASA described the news as being a "discovery about the moon from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy," which is a Boeing 747SP aircraft modified to contain a 8.8 foot reflecting telescope. The reveal will be made during a media conference at 12 p.m. EDT on Monday, October 26, with audio being streamed live to the space agency's website, and likely YouTube, which has hosted the video streams of its recent missions with SpaceX. "This new discovery contributes to NASA's efforts to learn about the moon in support of deep space exploration," NASA said. "Under Artemis program, the agency will send the first woman and next man to the lunar surface in 2024 to prepare for our next giant leap – human exploration of Mars as early as the 2030s. Understanding the science of the moon also helps piece together the broader history of the inner solar system." As social media users debate if the announcement will feature alien lifeforms or if the moon is haunted, a slice of the truth may already be out there. On Monday this week, the Finnish telecommunications company Nokia confirmed that it had been selected by NASA to build the first ever cellular network on the moon. "Nokia... innovations will be used to build and deploy the first ultra-compact, low-power, space-hardened, end-to-end LTE solution on the lunar surface in late 2022," it said. "Nokia's LTE network is ideally suited for providing wireless connectivity for any activity astronauts need to carry out, enabling voice and video communications capabilities, telemetry and biometric data exchange, and deployment and control of robotic and sensor payloads." Nokia noted it will be a "crucial component" for Artemis. Marcus Weldon, Nokia's chief technology chief, said: "We are now building the first ever cellular communications network on the moon. Reliable... and high-capacity... networks will be key to supporting sustainable human presence on the lunar surface." Although with NASA pitching the moon news as a new science-based discovery, it may be something else entirely.