NASA Puzzler unveils the smallest prize in space
The NASA Puzzler invited readers to identify a mystery satellite image. The winner receives credit and perhaps glory, but no prize money or trip to the International Space Station.
This makes the contest more financially disciplined than most television quizzes. Entrants may study spectral bands, geology and remote sensing before winning the same reward offered to whoever labels the office milk.
The image later showed Múlajökull, a glacier in Iceland. Before the reveal, online experts proposed a volcanic island, a river delta and the stain beneath NASA’s communal kettle.
Earth observation joins the pub quiz economy
“Glory remains subject to availability,” said Dr Orbitella Smudge, Deputy Keeper of Unlabelled Terrain. “Credit arrives in a sentence near the bottom, travelling at the speed of procurement.”
Entrants could answer in a few words or several paragraphs. Keen players submitted the location, satellite, instrument, spectral bands and a short emotional biography of the nearest moraine.
NASA asked recent winners and geospatial professionals to wait a day. This gave beginners a fair chance to type green wiggly thing Iceland into a search engine and experience the scientific method.
The Bureau of Affordable Cosmic Rewards has prepared future prizes. Correctly identifying a nebula earns a nod. Naming an exoplanet earns two nods. Discovering life elsewhere earns permission to update the shared spreadsheet.
Mission control offered one clue: the picture came from Earth. This narrowed the field to 510 million square kilometres and ruled out the Moon, Mars and a close view of the laminator.
The glory enters a slow orbit
NASA congratulated the first correct reader. Glory launched immediately, although tracking confirms it remains somewhere between the launch pad and accounts payable.
Read the real story: NASA’s July 2025 satellite image puzzler.
