Sending “Water” to Europa

A triangle-shaped metal plate with rounded edges against a black background. The silver-colored plate has waveforms, visual representation of sound waves, radiating out from a circular symbol toward the edges of the plate.
NASA/JPL-Caltech

This image from March 8, 2024, shows waveforms of the word “water” in 103 languages etched onto a triangular metal plate. The plate will be attached to the Europa Clipper spacecraft, set to fly to one of Jupiter’s moons, Europa , after it launches in October 2024.

The waveforms radiate out from a symbol representing the American Sign Language sign for “water.” The other side of the plate is engraved with U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón’s handwritten poem “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa” and will be affixed with a silicon microchip stenciled with more than 2.6 million names submitted by the public through NASA’s Message in a Bottle campaign .

Read more about this plate and its connection to Voyager’s Golden Record.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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