Bernie Sanders in space! These inauguration mitten memes are out of this world

News
By Hanneke Weitering
last updated

Bernie and his mittens have been spotted across the universe.

Bernie Sanders sits on Saturn's rings in this image from NASA's Cassini mission, which citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill edited to include Bernie Sanders.
Bernie Sanders sits on Saturn's rings in this image from NASA's Cassini mission, which citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill edited to include Bernie Sanders. (Image credit: Saturn: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill via Twitter; Bernie Sanders photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty)

After casually stopping by President Joe Biden's inauguration on Wednesday (Jan. 20), Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont set out on a tour of the universe — sort of. 

OK, so the senator has not left Earth, but a viral photo of him bundled up in a bulky coat and wool mittens at the inauguration has prompted space fans with photo-editing skills to send Sanders to the moon, Mars, the International Space Station, a black hole, and even the "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" universes.

Scroll down to check out some of our favorite "out-of-this-world" #SitWithBernie memes from around the web. 

Related: A moon rock in the Oval Office: President Joe Biden's lunar display

The photo that launched 1,000 memes: Former presidential candidate, Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) sits in the bleachers on Capitol Hill before Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th U.S. President on Jan. 20, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (Image credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)
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Sanders, a former presidential candidate who lost the Democratic nomination to Biden in 2020, said during his campaign that, if elected, he would publicly disclose any secret government information about UFOs. 

While he hasn't publicly expressed interest in going to space himself, his campaign website states that he "supports NASA's mission and is generally in favor of increasing funding for NASA."

Bernie in low Earth orbit

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Bernie on the moon

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Bernie across the solar system

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Bernie rides with SpaceX

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Bernie enters the sci-fi universe

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Space adventures on Earth

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Editor's note: Do you have a space-themed #SitWithBernie meme you'd like to add to Space.com's roundup? We'd love to see! Please email your meme(s) to community@space.com or tweet them at @hannekescience. 

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her on Twitter @hannekescience. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. 

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

Hanneke Weitering
Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos.