In October of this year, NASA will launch the Europa Clipper Mission to Jupiter’s icy moon, equipped with a unique message recorded in Hindi and various other languages. The moon exhibits compelling evidence of an ocean beneath its icy surface, containing more than twice the water volume of all Earth’s oceans combined.
Scientists have inscribed a message on a 7 by 11-inch tantalum plate, featuring graphical representations of the word “water” in Hindi and over 100 other languages spoken on Earth, emphasizing the planet’s connection to Europa.
Linguists collected recordings of the word “water” spoken in 103 languages, which were converted into visual waveforms and etched onto the plate, emanating from a symbol representing the American Sign Language sign for “water.” The plate, inspired by the golden record sent aboard the Voyager mission, embodies the essence of humanity’s shared knowledge and curiosity.
Additionally, the spacecraft carries an engraving of US Poet Laureate Ada Limón’s handwritten poem “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa,” and a silicon microchip containing over 2.6 million names submitted by individuals worldwide. The artwork on the plate’s inward-facing side includes a nod to radio frequencies used for interstellar communication, reflecting humanity’s ongoing quest to explore the cosmos.
The primary objective of the Europa Clipper Mission is to ascertain whether Europa harbors environments capable of supporting life beneath its icy shell.