Stephen Hawking has died and people on Twitter are very worried about Sheldon Cooper

Hawking, who died early Wednesday at 76, was a British theoreticial physicist considered by many during his lifetime to be the world’s greatest scientist.

Hawking, who refused to be limited by a 1963 diagnosis of ALS, was also the idol of Cooper, the nerd-meets-annoying-know-it-all character played to Emmy-winning perfection by Jim Parsons.

And so naturally, it was Sheldon whom a lot of people immediately thought of when news of Hawking’s death broke.

Indeed, Twitter is expressing nearly as much sympathy and concern for Sheldon as it is for real life folks who knew and loved Hawking.

And:

And:

Some tweeters were feeling almost as sorry for Sheldon’s fellow scientist, former roommate and best buddy, Leonard:

Not all of the outpouring consisted of sad Tweets, though. Hawking was a fan of the top-rated CBS sitcom and “appeared” on the show at least four times (his voice would be heard on the phone or on a character’s computer). The running joke was that the supremely-confident-in-his-own-brilliance Sheldon could never quite obtain Hawking’s approval:

Not that he didn’t keep trying:

And failing:

They finally met in person in the Season Five episode, “The Hawking Excitation.” where Hawking points out a math mistake of Sheldon’s. No word from Sheldon himself yet on the loss of his idol (Parsons isn’t on Twitter), but the cast and creators of “The Big Bang Theory” have made clear their affection for Hawking went far beyond the great plot points he inspired:

“The Big Bang Theory” is preempted this Thursday night as CBS airs the first round of March Madness games. But a lot of the show’s fans are figuring the show -- and Sheldon -- will take note of Hawking’s passing in some way.