Solved cryptogram
The usual way to find a planet around another star is to watch the star dim a little.
Astronomy Facts, sourced to NASA.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 67 letters over 18 different ones, graded medium.
Or go to the puzzle’s own page first.
What it means
If a planet's orbit happens to be edge on to us, it passes in front of its star once a circuit and blocks a fraction of a percent of the light. Measure that dip, its depth and how often it repeats, and you have the planet's size and its year. The method only works for the small share of systems lined up correctly, which is why a survey stares at hundreds of thousands of stars at once and waits.
The claim comes from NASA.
- SourceNASA
- CollectionAstronomy Facts
- Difficultymedium
- Length67 letters, 18 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
- NASAmedium, 68 letters
- NASAmedium, 71 letters
- NASA Imagine the Universehard, 76 letters
- NASAmedium, 74 letters
About as hard as this one
Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.