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James Webb telescope launch at Christmas generates Internet memes

After 25 years of development and 14 years after having its launch canceled for the first time, the James Webb Space Telescope went through successive delays until, finally, took off on top of an Ariane 5 super rocket on Saturday morning (25). And the fact that the event took place on Christmas Day had a lot of repercussions on the Internet, generating many memes.

Ariane 5 rocket carrying the James Webb Space Telescope was flown to the launch pad in Kourou, French Guiana, on December 23, two days before the big launch, which took place on Christmas morning. Image: ESA – S. Corvaja

First, let’s briefly recall the entire trajectory of markdowns. At first, it was designed to take off in 2007, but due to some adjustments that needed to be made, the launch was cancelled. Only 14 years later, this year, a new date was scheduled: he would fly towards his destination beyond the orbit of Terra, a region of space known as the Lagrange Point (L2) in the system formed by our planet and the Sun, on October 31st.

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There began a sequence of four new appointments. Due to a logistical issue, NASA determined that the observatory would fly on December 18th. However, a flaw in the rocket’s data transmission cable needed to be corrected, which ended up postponing the mission to the 22nd.

Due to bad weather, the space agency announced that the launch date would be changed again – this time, to the 24th. Weather was also to blame for the last postponement, when it was defined that the telescope would take off on Christmas morning.

James Webb Telescope Wanted To Steal Christmas?

It was enough for the creative – and eager – users of the Twitter filled the network with posts about coincidence of dates.

In the tweet above, for example, James Webb is compared to the character Grinch, an icon in American Christmas tales since the 1950s, who was played in theaters by Jim Carrey. The grumpy green monster did everything to “steal Christmas”. Fair comparison?

These users made a parody with a Christmas song, as soon as they learned of the postponement from the 18th to the 22nd of this month. Listen up, neste link, to original music, performed by Mariah Carrey.

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Of course Brazil is not left out when it comes to meme

It wasn’t just netizens abroad who echoed the Christmas launch of the James Webb telescope. As everyone knows, Brazil is a “meme factory”, and with this historical fact, it could not be different.

Camila Esperança, astronomer and Ph.D. candidate at the European Southern Observatory (ESO), raised the question: “Will there be a present or a cry?”.

The NASAWebb account, a humorous Brazilian profile of the telescope, which is posted in first person, as if it were the telescope, ensured that the observatory was not “Christmas drunk” nor was it lying about finally taking off.

The Brazilian Internet does not live only on jokes. In the tweets below, we can check the emotion of some users regarding the historic event.

And if you’re one of the legion of James Webb telescope fans, stay tuned for the Digital Look, because here on the website and on our social networks, you can follow everything about the largest and most important space observatory in the world.

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