Parallel Universe Discovery

Submission 11,006

Overview

Parallel Universe Discovery refers to a rumor that NASA scientists found evidence of a parallel universe that goes backward in time based on an article written in April 2020 which merely posed the theory of a parallel universe due to incomprehensible findings two years prior in Antarctica. The rumor spread in May 2020 after some publications claimed evidence was found and caused Twitter users to create memes in reaction to the news.

Background

On April 8th, 2020, New Scientist^[1] published an article written by Jon Cartwright titled "We may have spotted a parallel universe going backwards in time." According to CNET,^[2] the paywalled article describes the unusual two-year-old findings of the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA). The findings cannot be explained and the title of the article only proposed a theory.

Developments

On May 18th, 2020, a number of publications such as IGN^[3] and New York Post^[4] began publishing articles claiming that NASA found evidence of a parallel universe. That day, Twitter user @eliasdavilaaa^[5] tweeted, "why is no one talking about NASA detecting a parallel universe next to ours where time runs backwards??" and received over 34,900 likes and 8,800 retweets in three days (shown below, left). On May 20th, Twitter user @armiehammer^[6] tweeted, "NASA detected a parallel universe where time runs backward yesterday… haven’t heard a single thing about it. Makes me wonder what other crazy shit is happening (ie. being done) while we are locked in our houses and distracted by corona?" (shown below, right). The tweet garnered over 21,200 likes and 2,700 retweets in a day.

That same day, Twitter user @macksmorereese posted a reaction clip of a group of people rushing with the caption, "me and my girls going to the parallel universe nasa just discovered" (shown below). The tweet gained over 2,700 likes and 790 retweets in a day. The Daily Dot^[7] published an article on memes relating to the discovery.