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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