Remove tag planets
article thumbnail

Real space location of Star Trek and other science fiction

FlowingData

Star Trek and related might be fictional, but they usually reference real stars, planets, and galaxies. Tags: fiction , Overview Effect , space , Star Trek Overview Effect mapped, charted, and spreadsheeted the possible real-life locations in space of the fictional places.

112
112
article thumbnail

Thousands of satellites orbiting Earth

FlowingData

The Washington Post looked at the many satellites orbiting our planet. Tags: globe , satellites , space A globe shows a dot for each satellite, which are mostly there to show that there are a lot. I always appreciate dot transitions.

104
104
professionals

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Honesty research likely faked data

FlowingData

Planet Money broke it all down. Tags: fake data , honesty , Planet Money The research was over ten years ago, and Ariely suggested that the insurance company that supplied the data did something to it prior to him receiving it, but the insurance company recently stated that the data was faked after they supplied it.

93
article thumbnail

Origins of the world map

FlowingData

Mapping the entire planet is not exactly a straightforward thing to do, especially during a time when there weren’t any flying objects to take photographs from above. Tags: history , Jeremy Shuback. Jeremy Shuback rewinds all the way back to this time and asks how the first world map came to be.

104
104
article thumbnail

Shifts in time on the Doomsday Clock

FlowingData

The Doomsday Clock is a metaphorical clock that symbolizes a catastrophic end to the planet due to human self-destruction. Tags: Doomsday Clock , metaphor , Quartz Midnight represents an event and the time represents the “minutes” away from the event. The numbers are fuzzy, as you might imagine.

105
105
article thumbnail

Animal extinction over time

FlowingData

Reuters shows a developing pattern across species : Losing hundreds of species over 500 or so years may not seem significant when there are millions more still living on the planet. Tags: animals , extinction , Reuters. But in fact, the speed at which species are now vanishing is unprecedented in the last 10 million years. “We

99
article thumbnail

How long it takes a ball to drop on various Solar System bodies

FlowingData

James O’Donoghue made this straightforward animation that shows how long it takes for a ball to drop one kilometer on different planets: It might be surprising to see large planets have a pull comparable to smaller ones at the surface, for example Uranus pulls the ball down slower than at Earth! via kottke ].

123
123