Solved cryptogram
Helium was found in the light of the sun before anyone found a trace of it here on Earth.
Chemistry Facts, sourced to Royal Society of Chemistry.
What it means
During an eclipse in 1868 astronomers split the sunlight from the solar edge and saw a yellow line that matched no element in any laboratory. They named the missing element after the Greek word for sun. It took another twenty seven years for helium to be pulled out of a mineral on Earth and confirmed, which makes it the one element that was found in space first.
The claim comes from Royal Society of Chemistry, and the page it comes from was read on 2026-08-27 to confirm it still says this.
This is not the kind of claim that goes out of date, which is why it was set as a puzzle rather than a fact with a shelf life.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 70 letters over 19 different ones, graded medium.
- SourceRoyal Society of Chemistry
- CollectionChemistry Facts
- Difficultymedium
- Length70 letters, 19 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 73 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 75 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistryeasy, 74 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 73 letters
About as hard as this one
Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 74 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 74 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 68 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 79 letters