2024 Earth's Mini-Moon

Submission 173

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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 there until November 25th, with the phenomenon referred to as "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 the 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 in early October 2024.