Astronomical wordplay keeps them guessing

摘要

Huge Applet, Unsearchable Terrestrials! This anagram could hold the clue to an important extrasolar planet discovery. When astronomer Gregory Laughlin of the University of California at Santa Cruz posted it on his blog last month, readers immediately leapt on the puzzle, and speculation about the hidden message is rife (http://oklo.org/?p=279).rnThe tradition goes back centuries. Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei embedded his discovery of Saturn and of the phases of Venus in anagrams; Dutch astronomer Christopher rnHuygens used the same trick to describe his recognition of Saturn's rings (see 'Planetary games'). The device enabled them to stake a claim to a discovery while they slogged through the months of tough observational work needed to confirm the initial idea. Only then would the solution be revealed.