After NASA’s announcement regarding discovery of traces of flowing water on Mars, conspiracy theorists in addition to political commentators asked about the reasons behind the announcement and what the findings indicate.

On Monday, NASA said that it had found persistent slope lineae, seasonal streaks, which were observed by scientists in 2010 for the first time. Now, the scientists say that they have found proof of hydrated salts on the slopes, pointing to presence of water.

Rush Limbaugh dismissed announcement by the space agency on his radio show on Monday. He said that the agency was faking data and promoting claims regarding climate change. He said, “There’s so much fraud. What's to stop them from making up something that happened on Mars that will help advance their left-wing agenda on this planet?”

Many asked whether the announcement before 20th Century Fox releases The Martian was a coincidence. The movie is about an astronaut stuck on Mars. NASA said that it has not scheduled the announcement regarding water on Mars to coincide with the movie release.

After the announcement, the publicity team for the film said in reference to the film’s protagonist, “Good news for mankind. GREAT news for Watney”.

According to Newsweek, NASA may have taken more part on The Martian than on any other associations with filmmakers, together with for principal photography, script development, marketing and scheduling of the release.

According to Bert Ulrich, multimedia liaison at NASA for film and television, the process is “intense”.

On Monday, Ridley Scott, who directed The Martian, told Yahoo Movies, “I knew that months ago,” referring to the water discovery, though he apparently meant the presence of glaciers on the planet, which scientists had previously detected, not the slopes in the new finding.