Solved cryptogram
Earth stays at a livable temperature by radiating back to space almost all the sunlight it takes in.
Earth Science Facts, sourced to NASA.
What it means
Energy arrives as visible light and leaves as infrared, and the two have to balance or the planet warms or cools until they do. Greenhouse gases absorb some of the outgoing infrared and re-radiate part of it downward, which raises the surface temperature needed to push the same amount of heat out. Without any of them at all, Earth's average surface would be well below freezing.
The claim comes from NASA, 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This is not the kind of claim that goes out of date, which is why it was set as a puzzle rather than a fact with a shelf life.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: 82 letters over 20 different ones, graded medium.
- SourceNASA
- CollectionEarth Science Facts
- Difficultymedium
- Length82 letters, 20 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
- U.S. Geological Surveyhard, 78 letters
- U.S. National Park Servicehard, 72 letters
- NASAmedium, 75 letters
- NASAmedium, 74 letters
About as hard as this one
Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.
- U.S. Geological Surveymedium, 71 letters
- NASAmedium, 76 letters
- NOAAmedium, 75 letters
- U.S. Geological Surveymedium, 76 letters