The Bizarre Tale of Two Anagrams
And how it lead to the discovery of Mars’ two moons
Source: Wikimedia
An Anagram is a word or sentence whose letters can be rearranged to give to a new sentence and meaning.
Dormitory = Dirty room
Listen = Silent
Astronomer = Moon starer
A gentleman = Elegant man
Cinema = Iceman
By 1609, Galileo had built his own telescope and immediately began making spectacular discoveries many to the embarrassment of the Catholic church. As professor Noel M. Swerdlow describes it, “In about two months, December and January [1610], he made more discoveries that changed the world than anyone has before or since.”
On 25th July 1610, Galileo discovered that ‘Saturn has two moons’ and that they moved in unison with it. Still and sure of his unsubstantiated theory, Galileo wanted to reach out to Kepler for his opinion while still being secretive from the Church. Therefore, he sent Kepler a letter in a coded description of his latest discovery.
smaismrmilmepoetaleumibunenugttauiras
Which when rearranged forms: ltissimum planetam tergeminum observavi
English translation: I have observed the most distant planet (Saturn) to have a triple form.
Now, it was Kepler’s onus to decrypt. Kepler was a born riddle solver and after much hard work deciphered Galileo’s string of…
