US poet laureate unveils poem for NASA mission

STORY: "In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa"

U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limon has written

a poem for NASA's mission to Jupiter's moon

"Arching under the night sky inky with black expansiveness, we point to the planets we know, we pin quick wishes on stars. From earth, we read the sky as if it is an unerring book of the universe, expert and evident. Still, there are mysteries below our sky."

The poem will be engraved on the Europa Clipper

due to launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in 2024

The Clipper is expected to reach Jovian orbit in 2030

after a 1.6 billion-mile journey

"We are creatures of constant awe, curious at beauty, at leaf and blossom, at grief and pleasure, sun and shadow. And it is not darkness that unites us, not the cold distance of space, but the offering of water."

The poem includes an ode to the vast ocean of water

scientists strongly believe lies beneath Europa's icy crust

"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."