Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Joel Kontinen
Will there be life on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa? That is
what NASA is waiting for.
The message will be sent by the Europa Clipper
spacecraft. which will start in October 2024.
“If any life is found on Europa, it is likely to be microbial, so the
commemorative plate is more of a symbolic gesture than a bona fide message to
extraterrestrial life forms, per se. “
The message has the names of some 2,6 million individuals:
“More
than 2.6 million names have been stenciled into a "dime-size" silicon
microchip by technicians at the Microdevices Laboratory at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory. This microchip will be attached to a commemorative
plate, which will feature a handwritten copy of the poem "In Praise of
Mystery: A Poem for Europa" by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, among
other design details.”
Source:
Emily
Cooke, 2024, NASA unveils cryptic message from Earth to be sent to Jupiter's icy ocean moon Europa | Live Science 13 March
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