Actual processed Kepler observations: 22 retained samples within ±6 hours of 132.6421816 BKJD. Brightness uses the CSV median normalization; axis 98.3–100.2%. No fitted curve is shown.Read the clue
Actual processed Kepler samples around one recurring dip. Relative brightness decreases then returns near its previous level. Hours are relative to a rough navigation center; the vertical axis is truncated.
CASE 02 / ALIEN OCEANS
The ocean nobody photographed
An icy surface hides its interior. One clue arrives through a magnetic field.
Original teaching schematic; geometry, colors and sizes are illustrative.Read the clue
Symbolic cutaway of an icy moon in a changing external magnetic field. A subsurface layer is posed as a question; the thicknesses are not measurements.
CASE 03 / COSMIC MESSENGERS
The message that crossed the dust
A galaxy conceals its central engine. Another kind of messenger can carry evidence out.
Original teaching schematic; geometry, colors and sizes are illustrative.Read the clue
Conceptual diagram contrasting an obscured energetic region with a distant detector. The particle path is symbolic, not a reconstructed trajectory or measured distance.
CASE 04 / PLANETARY DEFENSE
The asteroid with a different clock
A spacecraft strikes a moonlet. The decisive clue arrives in the timing afterward.
Original teaching schematic; geometry, colors and sizes are illustrative.Read the clue
Two schematic asteroid-system diagrams compare rounded pre-impact and settled post-impact orbital periods, approximately 11 hours 55 minutes and 11 hours 22 minutes. Orbit shapes and distances are not reconstructed.
CASE 05 / LIGHT & MATTER
The two-line fingerprint
Two narrow dark features interrupt a spectrum. Can you identify the ingredient without claiming too much?
Teaching spectrum using NIST air wavelengths. Line strengths and widths are illustrative; this is not an observed stellar spectrum.Read the clue
A simulated, magnified yellow spectral window shows two illustrative dark lines at selected neutral-sodium air wavelengths of 588.9950 and 589.5924 nanometers. Width and strength are not observations.
CASE 06 / DEEP TIME
The fingerprint in the boundary rock
A thin layer preserves several strange clues. Which explanation connects them?
Original teaching schematic; geometry, colors and sizes are illustrative.Read the clue
A symbolic boundary-rock section highlights a thin layer linking chemical, mineral and geological clues. The dots are conceptual markers, not a measured elemental map.
YOUR SCIENCE CASEBOOK
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CHANGING YOUR MIND IS PART OF THE WORK
A clue is an invitation to reconsider.
Begin with the explanation that seems most plausible. Open the clues, make a final choice, and compare it with a source-linked discussion. An activity can have a best-supported answer while the underlying science still has open questions.
The casebook records completed activities, not a research qualification or a public score. We add and review cases through website updates; this collection is not a live data feed.
THE LAST TRANSMISSIONStories from the Edge of Science