It was one of humanity’s finest hours when we landed the Rosetta spacecraft’s robotic lander Philae on the surface of comet 67P/Churymov-Gerasimenko some 300m miles away.
Back on Earth, how did we celebrate this phenomenal piece of engineering and scientific endeavour? Ticker-tape parades? Naming school buildings after the guy with the dodgy shirt?
Nah – we listened to the song from Armageddon.
The 1998 blockbuster, which sees Bruce Willis landing on a comet set on a collision course with our blue planet, is one of the quintessential 90s blockbusters, complete with a roaring power ballad from American rock band Aerosmith.
That song, I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing, received a massive spike on Spotify the day after Philae’s nail-biting touchdown on the comet.
US figures for I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing [Spotify]
The boost was more pronounced in the US, though global figures for the song also saw a spike following ESA's successful mission:
Global figures for the song [Spotify]
In fact, according to Spotify's figures, every time Rosetta was mentioned in the news in the lead up to its mission, the Aerosmith tune benefitted from a boost in its popularity.
[H/T: io9]
