NASA broke the biggest science news of the century – using a CAKE

Scientists the world over were celebrating yesterday after NASA finally confirmed some pretty huge news – that the gravitational waves predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago do indeed exist.

As with any signifcant piece of scientific research, the discovery was embargoed from the media until an official release was sent out yesterday afternoon.

But one scientist based at NASA's Flight Centre in Maryland got a little over-excited, and broke the news to the world 16 minutes she was meant to… via a picture of cake.

Cake for #LIGO #GravitationalWaves at @NASAGoddard today! pic.twitter.com/vqxkdBJDzL

— Erin Ryan (@erinleeryan) February 11, 2016

Yup, the folks at NASA had a specially iced cake commissioned for their celebration day, with the words "Here's to the first direct detection of gravitational waves" written on it.

Unfortunately for NASA, Erin Ryan happens to be followed on Twitter by both the Washington Post and the NPR (National Public Radio). Oops.

Bizarrely, this is not the first time poor Erin has broken an embargo via a picture of cake – which could explain why she has such a host of media followers on Twitter.

So @NASAGoddard has cake to celebrate propene detections in Titan's atmo by @Shamrocketeer et al! pic.twitter.com/fS7puNa8TR

— Erin Ryan (@erinleeryan) September 30, 2013

Back in 2013, Erin tweeted a snap of an (albeit half-eaten) cake celebrating the discovery of a chemical called propene on one of Saturn's moons.

She admitted to the Washington Post yesterday that her employer advised her "to maybe chill with the tweeting for a week or so" after the original cake-leak in 2013… but we kinda hope she never stops.