A space-based sonnet

Inspired by the recent exploits of the New Horizons satellite that just rendezvoused with the strangely-shaped, actually stranger than first thought, Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule, I wrote the sonnet that follows below.


flyby of Ultima Thule

To find a single ebon pebble rest-
ing on basaltic sands would seem to far
exceed what valiant efforts could be best
applied; it's simpler just to find a star
within a galaxy, because its light
shines bright against the empty dark of space;
yet this dim wanderer traversed the night
in spectral silence, leaving just a trace
detectable, and yet enough to track
it in the Kuiper void and then to send
our envoy, where for moments in the black
we had a single chance to comprehend
an object with a clear identity
existing in austere serenity.