--UPDATE: Please see our followup post - "Twitter Meltdown Not a Hack"--
What does a Twitter meltdown look like? Probably something like the above, in which the user @astrospace seemingly loses his cool and goes on the attack.
The dominant theory remains that the account holder, representing the space.gs website, simply flipped out. This Twitpic (above) captured the carnage. The account has now dropped from 23,000+ followers to 213.
We're still piecing together, from Twitter searches, what was said when, but the theory of a meltdown seems the likely story at this time. The Applicant blog has more details on that opinion, having spotted the story on Thursday. Meanwhile, we discovered that the account owner posted this message on the brand feedback site GetSatisfaction, solidifying the story:
Twitter has not closed my account as I requested.
I have repeatedly requested closure of account "astrospace" yet no action has been taken. I do not have access to the user interface for this account and cannot retrieve its password to re-do the delete request proceedure. I requested closure of this account because of gross incompetence on the part of Twitter (the sudden deletion on two occasions of 12000 friends/followers). I need the account closed asap. If this is not actioned I will have to take the matter to the authorities - and believe me I will.
If you have more information - or you were following @astrospace when this happened - please leave a comment and we will update this post accordingly.