Library of Congress Magazine: Last Word

This article was published in the November/December 2023 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine.

Join the mission and have your name engraved on NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft as it travels to explore an ocean world that may support life.

For centuries, humans have gazed at the sky in awe, wondering about one of the most elusive mysteries of our universe: Are we alone?

I believe that we’ll have the opportunity to answer that massive, seemingly impossible question in our lifetimes.

In the foothills of Pasadena, California, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is working on missions that will search for habitable environments beyond Earth. One such mission is Europa Clipper, a spacecraft that will travel 1.8 billion miles on a journey to explore Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. The spacecraft is designed to observe Europa exclusively and thoroughly and is currently being assembled at JPL as it prepares for a launch in 2024.

Discovered by Galileo in 1610, Europa is believed to contain a vast ocean beneath its icy surface that may contain ingredients to support life. If we look at the history of life on Earth, we know it stayed very simple for a very long time. The life we’re searching for in the cosmos could be single-celled organisms. What’s thrilling about that is, if we find it, it would be a telltale sign that life beyond Earth is not only possible, but probable elsewhere in the universe.

The spacecraft won’t make its long voyage alone. Engraved on its side will be an original poem titled “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa,” written by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, who is known for work that explores the human connection to the natural world, in collaboration with the Library of Congress. Her poem connects the two water worlds that Clipper will travel between — Earth and Europa — and describes the human impulse to reach for what’s beyond.

Ada’s poem is also a beautiful reminder of the harmonious connection between art and science, of human creativity and our inherent instinct toward exploration. At the heart of this connection lies a shared pursuit of knowledge, of curiosity and the joy of discovery that will lead us to better understanding our universe and beyond.

While NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration aims to be at the forefront of scientific discovery through groundbreaking missions, technology and research, we also hope to inspire people everywhere to think bigger and imagine what’s possible.

We need innovators of all kinds — the best and brightest minds in science and the arts alike — to help uncover the mysteries of the universe. Together, with our diverse backgrounds, perspectives and experiences, we can accomplish what many thought to be impossible.

In praise of humanity’s passionate pursuit of knowledge, I’d like to allow Ada to have the last word:

“O second moon, we, too, are made of water, of vast and beckoning seas. We, too, are made of wonders, of great and ordinary loves, of small invisible worlds, of a need to call out through the dark.”