A Poem Is Going to Jupiter’s Moon Europa (& You Can Go, Too)

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This week, U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón successful conjunction with the Library of Congress announced that NASA’s Europa Clipper volition beryllium launching connected its ngo successful October 2024 with “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa.” The poem, written by Limón, volition question 1.8 cardinal miles done the galaxy. It volition beryllium engraved connected the abstraction craft.

There has agelong been speculation of beingness connected Europa beneath its ice-covered ocean. Whatever that beingness mightiness look similar is yet to beryllium known, but the ngo volition supply captious accusation astir the moon’s inhabitants, culture, terrain, and imaginable for supporting life. The Europa Clipper is expected to onshore connected Jupiter’s satellite successful 2030.

More, you tin person your sanction included arsenic portion of the mission. Anyone who’d similar to motion the poem arsenic it hurtles done abstraction whitethorn bash truthful astatine NASA’s Mission successful a Bottle website. Every sanction included earlier December 31, 2023, volition beryllium engraved connected a microchip to travel the poem.

“Writing this poem was 1 of the top honors of my life, but besides 1 of the astir hard tasks I’ve ever been assigned,” Limón said astatine an lawsuit held astatine the Library of Congress to denote the project. “Eventually, what made the poem travel unneurotic was realizing that successful pointing toward different planets, stars and moons, we are besides recognizing the tremendous acquisition that is our satellite Earth. To constituent outward is besides to constituent inward.”

NASA has launched akin projects before, allowing anyone who wished to nonstop their sanction into abstraction to bash truthful with Artemis I and respective Mars spacecraft. The existent Mission successful a Bottle efforts are akin to the Golden Record sent aboard the Voyager, which sent into abstraction an array of sounds and images from crossed the globe into space.

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“Ada Limón is simply a superb writer whose enactment often connects readers with the earthy world, truthful her Poem for Europa is almighty successful communicating our quality instincts for art, subject and exploration,” said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden during the announcement of the initiative. “Sending a poem into abstraction connected a ngo to research our star strategy is an unthinkable accidental for america each to bespeak and motion connected to Ada’s poem arsenic a ‘Message successful a Bottle’ from Earth.”

Find beneath the announcement of the program, wherever Limón unveiled the poem and performed it.

Find much quality and stories of involvement from the publication satellite in Breaking successful Books.

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