Mapping Outside the Box

In our blog we want to talk about geodata in general but, nevertheless, due to our expertise we often focus on the road domain. We talked about high definition map data and various data formats to represent this accuracy and level of detail and how to distribute the data sets. We also encouraged to re-use solutions and ideas from the automotive domain in the railway domain. Whether it was data collection or usage, we dug deep into this domain as well. Leaving Earth helps us to orientate ourselves: Space technology helps us every day to find our destination (unless some idiots are messing around with global navigation satellite systems) and can provide very precise topographical data, too. But now let us not only have a look outside the box but outside the box warehouse!

The Chinese Academy of Sciences published in 2022 a detailed mapping of the moon. The geologic atlas contains the complete moon with a scale of 1:2,500,000 and, therefore, is currently the most precise data set about the moon so far. It was collected during the Chang’e mission.

A quick side note on scale:

A larger scale does not mean that the content is more precise, and a scale indication makes more sense for printed maps instead of digital data sets. Resolution matters and the Chang’e data is also more precise.

The atlas comprises 30 sector diagrams, which together form a visualization of the whole moon. It shows 12,341 impact craters, 81 large impact basins and several lithologies and structures of the moon (as well as landing sites). Previously, United States Geological Survey had published the most-detailed map of the moon with a scale of 1:5,000,000 in 2020. Before that everyone had to work with the data from the Apollo missions from half a century ago.

The higher detail can help to identify new landing sites based on interesting geological locations for upcoming moon missions, and it is good that the data is shared with everyone. It is correct that the race to the stars between the Soviet Union and the United States of America was the basis of many inventions and technical successes, but the collaboration after the Cold War, such as building and operating jointly the International Space Station, brings more synergy than spending taxpayer’s money in three countries separately for the same goals.

But we are not finished, yet. The moon is in front of our doorstep. Let’s really map outside the box!

Also in 2022 a new data set about the total space was published. The Gaia Data Release 3 contains the location, 3d movement vector as well as chemical composition, temperature, color, age, and mass of up to two billion stars. Additionally 800,000 binary systems, 156,000 rocky bodies and millions of other galaxies and quasars (fixed stars so to speak) are mapped. It is the most comprehensive mapping of the universe so far!

With the help of the data it could be proven that stars can change their shape due to starquakes and not only shrink or bloat. Additionally, the chemical atlas shows that stars consisting only of chemical elements from the Big Bang are mostly marginal to our galaxy, which supports the Big Bang theory. Stars at the center are belonging to older generations of stars. But some of them contain also elements from outside of our galaxy…

Outlook

All of that got interesting because a new detail comes with the new Gaia data set: An Austrian research team calculated that our solar system will get a second sun! The star Gliese 710 (located in the Cygnus constellation) is heading towards our system with a speed of roughly 50,000 km/h. The current distance is 60 light years, thus in 1.29 million years we should invest into good protection: When Gliese 710 will enter the Oort cloud a lot of planetesimal will get impacted by the changing mass field (Gliese 710’s mass is about approximately 60% of our sun) and may redirect their journey. Roughly 4,500 comets could head towards Earth and could create an impact like the one that ended the life of the dinosaurs and the end of the cretaceous age. But we don’t have to spend additional money on sunblocker because Gliese 710 will get only 13,366 to 4,300 astronomical units (distance between Earth and sun) close to Earth, which means that the star can be seen from Earth as we currently can see Jupiter. And the visit will be only temporary, after 64,000 years Gliese 710 will already say farewell and leave Oort cloud again. Stay tuned!