A free astronomy word search, new every day. Every puzzle is built around one theme, so today you might be hunting the moons of other worlds and tomorrow the brightest stars in the sky. There are 33 themes in rotation and the words change each time a theme comes back around, which means no two puzzles read the same.
Missions Beyond Earth
Robots doing the hard part, decades at a time.
Find these words
- galileo
- juice
- bepicolombo
- curiosity
- ulysses
- osiris rex
- new horizons
- flyby
- insight
- spirit
How to play
- Find the ten words listed beside the grid. They run in all eight directions: across, down, diagonally and backwards.
- On a computer, press the first letter and drag to the last one.
- On a phone or tablet, tap the first letter, then tap the last one. Dragging works too.
- With a keyboard, use the arrow keys to move around the grid, press Enter on the first letter and Enter again on the last.
- Words with a space, such as BLACK HOLE, sit in the grid with no gap between them.
Two bonus words are hidden in every grid
Alongside the ten listed words, every puzzle hides two more from the same theme that never appear on the list. Once you know the day’s theme you can start guessing at what else belongs there. Each bonus word you find earns you a hint, and neither one counts against your ten.
Hints, timer and daily streaks
You earn a hint for every four words you find. Spending one flashes the first letter of a word still on your list. The clock starts on your first selection and stops when the last word falls.
Come back the next day and your streak goes up. Your progress is saved in your browser, so you can close the tab halfway through a puzzle and pick up the same board later. The speaker icon turns the sound off and the A+ button makes the letters larger.
Missed a day? Play an earlier puzzle
The Previous and Next links under the grid walk back through the archive one day at a time, and finishing a puzzle brings up a list of recent dates you can jump straight to. The archive goes back to 19 June 2026.
Read about what you found
Solve the puzzle and the words that have an article behind them turn into links. Find TITAN and you can go straight to what we have written about Titan. It is a decent way to end up somewhere you were not planning to read.
Questions
Is the word search free?
Yes. No account, no download, no app. It runs in the browser on any device.
How big is the grid?
15 by 15 letters, with ten words to find and two bonus words hidden among them.
When does the new puzzle go up?
At midnight US Central time. The panel that appears when you finish counts down to the next one.
What are the themes?
Planets, moons, constellations north and south, the zodiac, the brightest stars, how stars live and die, galaxies, deep sky objects, telescopes and eyepieces, stargazing, comets and meteors, the Sun, eclipses, black holes, exoplanets, cosmology, rockets, space missions, the Apollo landings, astronauts, astronomers, space telescopes and more. Each one comes round roughly once a month with a different set of words.
Can I share my result?
The Share button copies your time, your streak and a small emoji picture of the board. It gives away no answers, so it is safe to post before your friends have played.
Bookmark the page and come back tomorrow for a new theme.