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Using telescopes, astronomers have been mapping the surface of Mars in surprising detail for over 100 years. This map of the entire Martian globe, showing everything from Mare Australe to Mare Boreum, was made in 1890. Now you can check a satellite photo to see how accurate it really was.
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Okay, this may be my new favorite thing on the internet: A map of the Star Wars galaxy, letting you know just how to get from Dantooine to Endor, and what other planets you pass on the way. It apparently originally appeared in the first issue of The Official Star Wars Fact File in 2002, before being reworked to offer more detail on planets of note for the February 2003 issue of fanclub magazine Star Wars Insider. All I'm saying is that I can sleep better in my bed tonight knowing that it is official canon that there's a planet in the Star Wars universe called Mon Calamari.
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Last night Google rolled out its latest mapping application, which allows you to browse the night sky and zoom in on nearby galaxies and stars. Called Google Sky, it's just about the most fun I've had with a mapping application since . . . well, Google Earth. But unlike Earth, Sky doesn't require you to download a bunch of software. You can browse the heavens as easily as you browse your neighborhood on Google Maps. And there are no annoying little pushpins — only helpful information boxes about what astronomical objects you're gawking at. You won't be able to look away. [Google Sky]
This is what a mass evacuation from a city looks like from space. Using satellites orbiting over Africa, human rights groups published UNOSAT satellite imagery to show, in very simple terms, the human cost of violence in the Chadian capital city of N'Djamena. Over 10,000 people are crammed on a bridge, trying to escape into the neighboring nation of Cameroon. The black dots are people, and the yellow dashes are vehicles, most likely trucks and buses. It's a chilling portrait of the human future, wracked with violence and recorded via space-based surveillance devices, taken on February 27. See the full map below.
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If you could time travel back 400 years to see the thick, green forests and clear streams of pre-urban New York City, would it change the way you feel about the environment today? Ecologist Eric Sanderson thinks so. In preparation for the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's arrival in New York's harbor, he's been putting together a series of computer-generated images of New York as it was four centuries ago, based on old maps and extrapolations from ecological data. He calls it Project Manhatta, and you can see an image from it above, showing Times Square 400 years ago and today. Why would an ecologist want to time travel rather than recycle?
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This map shows the places in the world where the next deadly virus will probably begin its fatal sweep across the globe. Red areas are plague "hot spots," and green areas are regions where epidemics are least likely to break out. An international team of scientists came up with the map after years of exhaustive research into virus patterns. Researchers discovered that disease disasters have quadrupled over the past 50 years, and they have evidence showing which groups are most likely to spread a virulent disease.
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