2024 Earth's Mini-Moon

About

2024 Earth's Mini-Moon refers to the asteroid 2024 PT5 that entered Earth's orbit in late September 2024 and will temporarily circle the planet until November 25th, with the phenomenon referred to as a "mini-moon." The news of the bus-sized asteroid entering Earth's orbit spawned memes on social media, with users making references to various media.

History

2024 PT5 is a near-Earth asteroid approximately 11 meters (36 feet) in diameter that entered Earth's orbit on September 29th and will travel on a trajectory around the planet until November 25th, 2024. The asteroid was discovered by ATLAS South Africa on August 7th, 2024, and poses on danger to Earth.^[1] The object is commonly referred to as "mini-moon."

On September 18th, 2024, X^[2] news account @PopBase wrote about the approach of the asteroid, with the post garnering over 26.7 million views, 44,000 reposts and 313,000 likes in two weeks. On that day, X^[3] user @TomZohar posted the earliest notable meme about the mini-moon, which received over 360 reposts and 5,500 likes in two weeks (shown below).

On September 30th, 2024, @PopBase made a news post about the asteroid entering Earth's orbit, which received over 13 million views, 26,000 reposts and 224,000 likes on X^[4] in one day (shown below).

Online Reactions

The post was followed by an influx of memes about the mini-moon, with users making references to popular media or joking that the arrival of 2024 PT5 was timed for a specific event. For example, on September 30th, 2024, X^[4] user @kimgayism joked that the mini-moon was a part of the promotion campaign for a debut solo album by K-Pop idol Jin. The post (shown below) received over 3,900 reposts and 20,000 likes in one day.

Later on September 30th, 2024, X^[5] user @HarryPhillips15 made a joke referencing the film The Substance which gained over 840 reposts and 13,000 likes in one day (shown below).

More memes about the mini-moon were shared on X / Twitter and other social media on September 30th and early October 2024.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References