Solution: Interplanetary Hopper

Answer: CROAK

Written by Thomas Gordon

This puzzle uses a partly-invented schema for talking about arrangements of planets, derived mainly from Latin. The rules about how this schema works can be deduced from the examples and by translating the root words of the used phrases.

A full glossary is below:

Planet Names:

• ☀️: sol
• 🌕: luna
• 🌎: terra
• 🪐: anulus
• 🌱: herba
• 🦟: musca
• 🟥: rubrum
• 🟦: cerulea
• ⛲: silanus
• 🦂: scorpius
• 🐌: cochlea

Existing Phrases:

• Syzygy: two or more bodies in a line (with the superior body listed first)
• Eclipse: when one body blocks another body from view of a third
• Superior conjunction: when a planet, the sun, and another planet are in a line
• Superior: the planet with a wider orbit

Invented Constructions:

• X Y-Z eclipse: Y blocks Z from view, from the perspective of X (note how X, Y, and Z can be multiple planets)

Other Terms:

• proto-: first
• deutero-: second
• di-: two/both (eg dilunar means “two/both moons”)

Each alignment is listed in the order that places the planet furthest from the sun first in the name; hence, "musca-cerulea-scorpius syzygy", instead of "scorpius-cerulea-musca syzygy".

Importantly, these constructions can be “nested”: a set of bodies in a syzygy can be one of the components of an eclipse or superior conjunction.

Each of the planetary bodies in the solar system (the sun, planets, and moons) are associated with one letter. Each arrangement of celestial bodies is also associated with a clued word, which is the word spelled by all of the letters of those celestial bodies when arranged in the order specified. By solving the clues and working out the arrangement of all the bodies, each of them can be assigned a letter. In cases where ordering is ambiguous (i.e. syzygies), the constraints presented by other celestial arrangments allows for unique letter determination. In the case of the conjunction, it should also be noted that it is impossible for cerulea to be in-between the sun and cochlea, given the orbits of the planets.

Finally, placing all of the planetary bodies into a full system syzygy as described by the final clue spells out the answer, FROG SOUND FIVE.

This clues the answer, CROAK.

Author’s Notes

At around the time that answer slots were getting claimed for this round, I was in the middle of playing a game called Outer Wilds. (Really excellent game, by the way.) And... well, not to spoil anything, but... there's a particular place I remember standing. It was in the depths of space, exactly on the pole of a planet. And I was just watching, for a time, all of these planets in the solar system, spinning distantly around me, moons going around, a binary planet system twisting about itself, all of these unique and brilliant planets dancing and circling and falling forever through the darkness. I couldn't get that image out of my head. The vision stuck with me, like a sunrise over sand.

Every puzzle I write spends just as long (if not longer) bubbling away in my head, so for a time the idea was just that. But eventually I had distilled what I wanted to do with this puzzle down into its essence; and once I had a full vial of that good, pure stuff, I wrote a draft that was fairly identical to the finished product in only a few hours. I ended up being slightly late to work because I was busy putting this draft together.