Britney Spears and NASA are tweeting each other to mark 20 years of 'Oops!... I Did It Again' and it's deeper than you think

On the 20th anniversary of the release of "Oops!... I Did It Again" Britney Spears gave us all an unexpected throwback moment.

And we're not just talking about this behind-the-scenes compilation of her favourite memories from the creation of the album, although, yes, that too.

We're referring to Britney's repartee. with... NASA.

Here's what happened.

It began when she tweeted to thank the space agency for her "gift".

The "we met on Mars" line is obviously a reference to the song's video, which shows her living her best life on Mars where we can only hope aliens are still to this day rocking a red latex jumpsuit.

NASA is clearly still a fan and responded with an actual line from the song. Even astronauts enjoy a classic mid-00s banger, it would seem.

But... it turns out this actually isn't the first time the two iconic, err, entities have interacted on Twitter.

Cast your mind back to 2012, in pre-Donald-Trump-as-president, pre-TikTok-making-hit-songs, pre-coronavirus times.

Deep down in the Twitter archives, you'll find this gem from five years ago today, on the "Oops!" 15th anniversary.

To which the official NASA Mars rover account replied at the time:

What a moment to relive in these mostly unpleasant times!

But Britney, before you go, there's something I want you to have​: