Tag: Space and astronomy

• Where space rocks land, and why the meteorite record is so lumpy

  

  I mapped 45,715 meteorites from the Meteoritical Society’s catalogue. 65% were found on Antarctic ice and 24% in hot deserts, while the 1,107 seen to fall follow people, not the sky.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories, Games & other interests

  Data bias, Geology, Present day, space, Space and astronomy, World, world maps

• Junk on the Moon and Mars: every human-made object on two worlds, mapped

  

  I mapped every human-made object on the Moon and Mars from Wikipedia’s lists: 133 on the Moon and 27 on Mars, 203 tonnes and 10.4 tonnes. A third of the Moon’s junk is five Saturn V rocket stages, and almost all of it is dead.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories, Games & other interests

  Beyond Earth, Exploration, Heritage, maps, Present day, space, Space and astronomy, Twentieth century, Wikipedia, world maps

• Up and down: every rocket launch since Sputnik, and where it all comes back

  

  I mapped all 7,416 orbital launch attempts since Sputnik from Jonathan McDowell’s catalogue. The world launched a record 329 in 2025, more than half by SpaceX, and half of everything ever catalogued has already fallen back.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories, Games & other interests

  Animated timeline, Present day, Science and technology, space, Space and astronomy, Twentieth century, World, world maps

• Fighting by moonlight: did the Moon decide when battles were fought?

  

  D-Day and El Alamein were timed by the Moon. I worked out the Moon over 9,877 battles from Wikidata, correcting the calendars as I went: battles fall on every phase almost equally.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories, Games & other interests

  Battles, Clocks and calendars, Long view, Military history, space, Space and astronomy, war, Wikidata, World

• Towns with an asteroid: the places on Earth that have a minor planet

  

  I mapped 2,193 asteroids (2,206 namings) named after places on Earth, each with a line to the observatory that found it. Japan has the most, Finland the most per head, and small observatories name the next valley.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories, Games & other interests

  Asia, cities, Naming, place names, Present day, space, Space and astronomy, Wikidata, World, world maps