The way you think the world looks? It doesn’t look like that.
Archives for posts with tag: map
Today io9 has a great story up about the new GRAIL maps of the moon. There is a lot of exciting science here, but most laypeople will probably be most interested in what this means for the leading theory of the moon’s formation (aka the Big Splat):
[Says] Mark Wieczorek, GRAIL co-investigator at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris[,] “With this crustal thickness, the bulk composition of the moon is similar to that of Earth. This supports models where the moon is derived from Earth materials that were ejected during a giant impact event early in solar system history.”
via NASA
An animated version of the maps (Mercator projection here):
via NASA: “This movie shows the variations in the lunar gravity field as measured by NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) during the primary mapping mission from March to May 2012. Very precise microwave measurements between two spacecraft, named Ebb and Flow, were used to map gravity with high precision and high spatial resolution.”
Oh the little rover that could! The Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, were only meant to last for 90 Martian-days (~92 Earth-days). Opportunity is still out there, exploring the surface of Mars (and soon to be joined by her cousin, the Mars Science Laboratory), but Spirit, five years and almost four months after landing on Mars, became stuck in a patch of soft ground. This video is composed of stills, and shows the rover traveling across Mars, conducting experiments, and finally, sadly, becoming stuck. I like to imagine that someday we’ll find Spirit, buried in the Martian soil, and once we clean off the solar panels and give her some power she’ll spring back to life.
Picture of Spirit taken from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
via Wikipedia – click to embiggen
Traverse maps
click to embiggen
Illustrated by Other-in-Law, here is a beautiful tapestry-style map of Westeros, the fictional land of A Song of Ice and Fire. Included are a lot of easter eggs for those of you who are familiar with the whole series.
Really amazing maps over the New York Times. I’m particularly surprised by just how many people in LA are ‘foreign-born’: Mapping America — Census Bureau 2005–9. You can view income, race, population, income, change in property value, etc!
after checking out these maps i’m really wishing i owned ‘jurassic park’ on dvd (had it on vhs, but i no longer have a vcr).