( CNN ) -- In the movie `` Back to the Future , '' the year is 1955 when Marty McFly introduces the song `` Johnny B. Goode '' to a high school dance . That was three years before this tune was actually written , but McFly knows it well because he 's from the future . It would stand to reason that in real life , time travelers from a future era -- or who had at least visited the future -- might give themselves away by mentioning events that have n't yet occurred . They might even do so online . I mean , you 'd obviously take to social media to broadcast your foreknowledge of world events , right ? Scientists at Michigan Technological University wanted to see if they could catch any such slips by residents of the future . So Robert Nemiroff , professor of physics , and graduate student Teresa Wilson conducted a whimsical study in hopes of identifying accurate predictions of future events . They are presenting their study at the American Astronomical Society Meeting on Monday . The online platform that allowed them to look most comprehensively for prescient posts was Twitter , because the social network does n't allow back-dating . Facebook users can alter timestamps on posts , and the popular search engines Google and Bing were not as helpful as Twitter in looking for `` prescient information , '' the authors found . Study authors focused on two major search terms they believe will have lasting significance for years to come : Comet ISON and Pope Francis . They looked for mentions of these from January 2006 to September 2013 . Before the identification of comet ISON in 2012 , there were no mentions that the researchers could find of this icy space rock . Similarly , before Jorge Bergoglio took on his papal name in 2013 , the phrase `` Pope Francis '' did not appear in the researchers ' search results , except for one person 's blog , which appears to have been speculating -- not remembering something from the future . It appears that no one posted about his or her neighbor or acquaintance declaring the name Pope Francis early , either . `` It 's not proof , but it 's an indication to me that it 's not possible , '' Nemiroff said , referring to time travel . There are , of course , several reasons why this technique might not detect any time travelers . Nemiroff and Wilson may have missed them by using the wrong search terms . Temporal adventurers might avoid posting to social media altogether , or even using the Internet , for fear of being found out . Or , you know , it might be physically impossible to travel to the past . `` It 's the largest database ever searched for that kind of information . It ( evidence of time travel ) might have been there , '' Nemiroff said . The idea for the study came about in discussions during poker games with his students , he said . Do n't worry , that 's not all they 're doing ; Nemiroff studies other more substantial topics such as gamma-ray bursts , and helped create NASA 's Astronomy Picture of the Day website . Others have tried in the past to lure time travelers into exposing themselves , Nemiroff and Wilson note in their paper . A convention for time travelers was held in May 2005 by then-graduate student Amal Dorai at MIT , but no one living among us from the future showed up , although the event attracted 450 guests , according to Nature . Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking , similarly , said in a July 2012 interview that he had thrown a party for time travelers , sending out invitations after the party occurred . Sadly , no one came . Similarly , no one answered the study authors ' calls to tweet on or before August 2013 using the hashtags # ICanChangeThePast2 or # ICannotChangeThePast2 , indicating whether the time travelers believed they could alter history . Sean Carroll , a physicist at California Institute of Technology who was not involved in the study , said physicists who have studied the question of time travel into the past -- taking into account Einstein 's theory of general relativity -- have concluded that we can imagine time travel , but it 's probably not possible in real life . `` We do n't have an airtight proof , but at the very least it would involve manipulating astrophysically significant amounts of matter and energy in unheard-of ways , '' he said in an e-mail . `` And even if you built a 'time machine , ' it would let travelers from the future go back to the moment you built it , but you would n't ever be able to visit any moments before you built it . Since we do n't think anyone has built one already , I think we 're safe from time travelers for the time being . '' Still , Carroll said , Nemiroff 's paper represents a fun , clever idea . `` To be clear , there was essentially zero reason to believe that they were going to find any evidence for time travelers , but since it did n't exactly cost a lot of money to perform the study I 'm all in favor of it , '' Carroll said . So , if you are from the future and reading this , you secret is probably still safe -- for now .
New study uses Twitter to look for predictions of the future . Research found no prescient mentions of Comet ISON or Pope Francis . Comment: