As a supermoon illuminated the sky on Sunday (3 December) night for the first and last time in 2017, Twitter lit up with some stunning pictures of the lunar event along with a slew of hilarious memes and jokes. A supermoon occurs when the moon is full and its elliptical orbit brings it closer to Earth than usual.

According to Gordon Johnston, a program executive with Nasa's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft system, the moon will appear up to 14% larger and 30% brighter than usual to observers.

Since it is the last full moon of autumn, it is also known as the Frost Moon or the Moon before Yule. The next full moon will be on 1 January, 2018 as the second of three supermoons, dubbed the supermoon trilogy by Nasa. The third supermoon will occur on 31 January.

Naturally, people soon flooded social media with plenty of stunning photos capturing the spectacular lunar event using the viral hashtag #supermoon.

Some chose to commemorate the lunar event with hilarious memes, Star Wars-themed jokes and comments.

"I love when the moon gets all super," actress Juliette Lewis tweeted.

American illustrator and cartoonist Brandon Bird wrote: "That's no #supermoon. It's Hans Solo in a tiny pod."

"By morning he'll have taken credit for the super moon," one Twitter user joked.

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Twitter erupted with a slew of stunning photos and hilarious jokes and memes to commemorate the lunar spectacle REUTERS/Ali Jarekji
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