US Poet Laureate Ada Limón wrote a poem to be taken to Jupiter’s moon Europa.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
NASA submitted a poem by American Poet Ada Limón about the upcoming Europa Clipper mission, which will search for life on Jupiter’s icy moon. The agency also invited the public to add their names to the spacecraft that will travel billions of miles across our solar system.
This “message in a bottle” is similar to NASA’s past efforts in 1977, when NASA launched two copies of a phonograph disc called the Golden Record, with one version on each of the Voyager probes. The time capsule is still flying through space, containing sounds from Earth, such as laughter, music and animal sounds.
Limón’s poem, titled “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa,” is an “evolution” of NASA’s Golden Record, Robert Pappalardo, Europa Clipper project scientist, told Miriam Kramer of action. But with the latest efforts to send parts of ourselves into space, the goal is different.
“There’s no message to the aliens here,” Pappalardo said action. “This is purely a message to ourselves and a symbolic message to Europa.”
Poems for Europa by US Poet Ada Limón
Limón was named US poet laureate in 2022. Growing up, her work was largely inspired by artists, including her mother. He told NPR’s Nina Kravinsky that writing original work for the mission was one of his most difficult assignments.
“When NASA contacted me and asked if I would write original poetry, I immediately got excited and said yes. Then we hung up, and I thought, ‘How could I do that?’” Limón told NPR.
But there was one concept that stood out to him when he was first told about the mission: water. Water is key to the Europa Clipper, whose main goal is to determine whether the distant moon could support life. Scientists are “almost certain” that Europa has a vast ocean beneath its ice sheet, according to NASA. In his poetry, Limón writes about magic, mystery, and the water that “unites us.”
“And it is not the darkness that unites us,
not the cold distance of space, but
the offering of water, every drop of rain,
every brook, every pulse, every vein.
O second moon, we too were created
water, the ocean is wide and beckoning.
We are also made of miracles, greatness
and ordinary love, the invisible little world,
the need to cry out in the darkness.”
The words Limón will be engraved on the side of the spacecraft, representing the entire earth. “I think making it feel collective was really amazing for me, because it didn’t feel like it was my poetry,” Limón told action. “It feels like a collective poem. And as soon as I wrote it, it was like, ‘Oh, this belongs on Earth. This is our poem to the Earth.’”
To add to the collective nature of the movement, NASA also sent the names of people into space. Anyone can register virtually, and the space agency will engrave their name onto one of several microchips that will be installed in the spacecraft.
“We are excited to share with the world the opportunity to be part of the Europa Clipper journey,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, in a statement. “I really like the idea that our name will spread across our solar system.”
Europa, the icy moon of Jupiter
NASA / JPL-Caltech / Institut SETI
The spacecraft will leave Earth in October 2024 and begin its 1.8 billion mile journey to the Jupiter system. Scientists estimate that the spacecraft will reach orbit around Jupiter in 2030. As the spacecraft circles the planet and flies by Europa about 50 times, it will collect data about the moon’s atmosphere, ice, and oceans—and collect data for 500 million miles.
Currently, the Europa Clipper is being assembled—and live—at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
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Filed under: Art, Jupiter, Moon, NASA, Space, Poetry, Solar System, Writers
2023-10-23 21:32:48
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