2024 Solar Eclipse / Eclipse Conspiracy Theories

Submission 6,279

Overview

The 2024 Solar Eclipse refers to a total eclipse of the sun occurring in the afternoon of April 8th, 2024, over the central United States and parts of Mexico. In the path of totality, skywatchers in a narrow band that reaches across several states, including Ohio, will be able to see the sun entirely covered. In the lead-up to the eclipse, online commentators and conspiracy theorists offered viral takes and made memes about what the eclipse might mean on both practical and mystical levels. Numerous memes and reactions to the eclipse on the day of the event circulated online, such as Donald Trump Staring at the Eclipse, as well as posts following the event, like My Eyes and other memes.

Background

Solar eclipses are rare astronomical occurrences in which the moon's orbit comes directly between the Earth and the Sun, casting the moon's shadow over the Earth's face during the daytime.^[1] The 2017 Solar Eclipse generated a variety of memes.

As anticipation built for the 2024 solar eclipse event in April, NASA and other organizations produced maps (like the one seen below) showing the "path of totality," the narrow band of the Earth's surface where the total eclipse would be visible.^[2]

Online Reactions

Leading up to the solar eclipse in April 2024, numerous discussions, memes and conspiracy theories about the event spread online as social media users reacted to the news.

NASA Apep Serpent God Conspiracy Theory

On March 25th, 2024, NASA announced that it would fire three rockets while the eclipse was in the sky "to study how Earth’s upper atmosphere is affected when sunlight momentarily dims over a portion of the planet."^[3] The acronym for this program, APEP (Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path) is spelled the same as Apep, the ancient Egyptian spirit of darkness and chaos. Apep is a snake god and arch-nemesis of Ra, the sun god and creator god. In art, Apep is frequently depicted as a very long snake fighting Ra, who is represented either as a cat or in a boat.^[4]

On April 2nd, 2024, X / Twitter user Peter Sweden (@PeterSweden7) posted about the "Apep" name, earning over 3,200 likes 1,000 reposts in an hour.^[15] Similar posts were also made to TikTok and elsewhere on X around the same timeframe.

Biblical Rapture "Nineveh" Conspiracy Theory

Some commentators speculated that the coming April 8th eclipse indicated the beginning of the end times according to Christian theology. Much of this analysis centered around the names of cities in the paths of either the 2024 or 2017 eclipses, as well as towns situated in the area of overlap between the paths.

For example, on March 11th, 2024, TikToker @bignik (seen below, left) posted a video to TikTok that earned over 10 million views in three weeks and over 926,000 likes describing how the eclipse played into end-times Biblical prophecies.^[5] TikToker @savageworship posted a similar video (seen below, right) that same day about the Biblical prophecies using what appeared to be AI-generated images, earning over 159,000 likes and 4.2 million views in three weeks.^[7]

The textual argument rests on a reading of the Jonah and the whale story in the Bible. In that story, Jonah is sent to make a city called Nineveh "repent." Believers in this conspiracy theory claimed that the solar eclipse would pass through seven or eight cities in the United States called Nineveh, but a Snopes fact check found there were only two Ninevehs in the path of totality.^[6]

CERN Conspiracy Theory

The CERN Hadron Collider planned an experiment on April 8th, 2024, meaning the particle accelerator may be running during the moment of the solar eclipse.^[11] Online, many conspiracy theories, including a notable one in the summer of 2022, have circulated about the collider, speculating that experiments conducted there could open portals to alternate universes or alternate planes of reality.

On March 28th, 2024, X user @BGatesIsAPsycho posted purported "evidence" of this theory, receiving 6,000 likes and 2,800 reposts over the course of five days (seen below).^[12]

Many online shared their enthusiasm for the eclipse, excited to see the rare astronomical event. Others criticized and mocked conspiracy theorists. A March 30th post on X by @BGatesIsAPsycho (the same account committed to posting about CERN and the eclipse) that pointed to various historical events which occurred along the path of the eclipse earned over 9,400 likes and 3,400 reposts in three days, including the repost (shown below, top) from @nikicaga, which received over 30,000 likes on April 2nd.^[8] A Community Note attached to the post called the conspiracy theory false (seen below, bottom).

Solar Eclipse Memes and Jokes

There were also many discussions of the eclipse on Reddit, with users inquiring about how to see it and posting their reactions.^[9] One Redditor posted a meme (seen below) referring to Donald Trump Staring At The Eclipse, a well-known meme from the 2017 eclipse. The post received over 1,900 likes on /r/pics in one day on April 1st, 2024.^[10]

Memes referencing the solar eclipse event also appeared on subreddits such as /r/polandball,^[13] with Redditor AaronC14 posting a meme on March 30th that received over 4,400 upvotes and 70 comments in three days (seen below, left). On March 20th, Redditor beefstewforyou posted another example to /r/simpsonsshitposting^[14] that received over 370 upvotes and 20 comments in two weeks (seen below, right).

Post-Eclipse Memes and Reactions

As the solar eclipse swept over North America on April 8th, 2024, numerous viewers of the eclipse posted memes about it online. Many memes centered on eye protection during the eclipse, with some like X / Twitter user @TheWapplehouse (seen below) posting sardonically about "woke glasses" used to protect the eyes. The @Wapplehouse post received over 10,000 likes in a day.^[16]

On X, users such as @ElectionLegal joked on April 8th about not finding the eclipse stimulating enough, earning over 34,000 likes in three hours (seen below, top).^[17] That same day, X user @uncledoomer compared the eclipse viewing photos of President Joe Biden in 2024 to former President Donald Trump's famous viewing of the eclipse without protective glasses in 2017, earning 7,800 likes in two hours.^[18]

On Reddit, several posters made memes commemorating the eclipse and touching on some of the same themes, particularly the consequences of looking at it without eye protection. For example, on April 8th on the /r/prequelmemes sub, Redditor /u/Aeris16 posted the NPC Wojak Crowd meme (seen below), receiving over 420 upvotes in six hours.^[19]

2017 Solar Eclipse

The 2017 Solar Eclipse was a total solar eclipse visible in a narrow band within the United States stretching from Oregon to South Carolina on August 21st, 2017.