DAILY NO. 4 · VERIFIED MEASUREMENTS
The September 25, 2026 puzzle ran from the Perseverance rover at 3 m to the Sun at 1,392,700 km — 8 orders of magnitude apart, drawing on space. The pair furthest apart was round 2: the Sun is 309× as big as the contiguous United States.
Puzzle #4 asked about the Perseverance rover, the Sun, Earth, Saturn and a Space Shuttle orbiter. Each answer below gives the measured size, the reference it stood beside and the source behind the number. Want the surprise first? Replay this puzzle — archived days never touch your streak.
Answer: Perseverance Rover — 3 m. The Perseverance rover measures 3 m (length / span), which is 1.4× as big as the reference, a three-seat sofa at 2.2 m.
Perseverance is about the length of a small car.
Common miss: players tend to compress the Perseverance rover when it sits beside a three-seat sofa — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
Answer: The Sun — 1,392,700 km. The Sun measures 1,392,700 km (length / span), which is 309× as big as the reference, the contiguous United States at 4,500 km.
The Sun is about 1.39 million kilometres in diameter.
Common miss: players tend to compress the Sun when it sits beside the contiguous United States — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
Answer: Earth — 12,742 km. Earth measures 12,742 km (length / span), which is 1.9× as big as the reference, Mars at 6,779 km.
Earth is about 12,742 kilometres across.
Common miss: players tend to compress Earth when it sits beside Mars — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
Answer: Saturn — 116,460 km. Saturn measures 116,460 km (length / span), which is about 1.2× smaller than the reference, Jupiter at 139,820 km.
Saturn is more than nine times wider than Earth.
Common miss: players tend to inflate Saturn when it sits beside Jupiter — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
Answer: Space Shuttle Orbiter — 37.3 m. A Space Shuttle orbiter measures 37.3 m (length / span), which is about 1.9× smaller than the reference, a Boeing 747 at 70.7 m.
The orbiter alone is about as long as a short-haul airliner — the launch stack was far taller.
Common miss: players tend to inflate a Space Shuttle orbiter when it sits beside a Boeing 747 — big things get squeezed, small familiar things get stretched.
Sizes are measured along the axis named in each round and link to their published source. Explore the full library by category, or read how scoring works.