Solved cryptogram
Heat any element and it gives off a fixed set of colors, which works as a fingerprint.
Chemistry Facts, sourced to NASA.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 68 letters over 21 different ones, graded hard.
Or go to the puzzle’s own page first.
What it means
The electrons in an atom can occupy only certain energy levels, so when one drops from a higher level to a lower one it emits light of exactly the energy of that gap, and that means exactly that color. The pattern of gaps is set by the structure of the atom, so no two elements share a pattern. Read the pattern in the light of a distant star and you have the chemical composition of something nobody will ever visit.
The claim comes from NASA.
- SourceNASA
- CollectionChemistry Facts
- Difficultyhard
- Length68 letters, 21 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
- U.S. Department of Energyeasy, 76 letters
- PubChem, National Library of Medicinemedium, 71 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 76 letters
- PubChem, National Library of Medicinehard, 67 letters
About as hard as this one
Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.
- Royal Society of Chemistryhard, 77 letters
- U.S. Geological Surveyhard, 73 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 71 letters
- OpenStax, Rice Universityhard, 77 letters