Where the numbers come from

Each of the 94 objects shows its size and its source on its own card. 87 sources

• Angeli & Marinova 2013 (IAEA) www-nds.iaea.org
• Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org
• Astronomy.com astronomy.com
• BioNumbers 100483 bionumbers.hms.harvard.edu
• BioNumbers 105243 bionumbers.hms.harvard.edu
• BioNumbers 106856 bionumbers.hms.harvard.edu
• Britannica, Bee hummingbird britannica.com
• Britannica, Carbon britannica.com
• Britannica, Red blood cells britannica.com
• Chaplin, Water Structure and Science water.lsbu.ac.uk
• CNN Travel cnn.com
• CODATA 2022 (NIST) physics.nist.gov
• CTBUH Skyscraper Center skyscrapercenter.com
• Egypt Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities egymonuments.gov.eg
• Endowment for Human Development ehd.org
• Erickson 2009, Biol. Proced. Online link.springer.com
• ESA Gaia Image of the Week cosmos.esa.int
• ESA, Types of orbits esa.int
• FAI (World Air Sports Federation) fai.org
• FIBA Venue Guide venueguide.fiba.basketball
• Field Museum fieldmuseum.org
• GBRMPA, Reef Facts elibrary.gbrmpa.gov.au
• Golden Gate Bridge District goldengate.org
• Gott et al. 2005, ApJ ui.adsabs.harvard.edu
• Guinness World Records 2 pages
  • Say high to forest guinness world records reveals the worlds tallest giraffe 625257
  • Tallest tree living
• Solar System Scope, Solar Textures (surface maps of the Sun, planets and Moon, CC BY 4.0) solarsystemscope.com
• IAU 2012 Resolution B2 syrte.obspm.fr
• IAU, Measuring the Universe iauarchive.eso.org
• IFAB Laws of the Game, Law 1 theifab.com
• IFAB Laws of the Game, Law 2 theifab.com
• ISO 216 (papersizes.org) papersizes.org
• ISO/IEC 7810 iso.org
• ITF Approval of Tennis Balls 2025 itftennis.com
• Joyce et al. 2020, ApJ sci.news
• Kenhub, Neutrophil kenhub.com
• Kervella et al. 2003, A&A aanda.org
• Kervella et al. 2017, A&A aanda.org
• Krauth et al. 2021, Nature mpq.mpg.de
• LBMA, Density of Gold lbma.org.uk
• LSU AgCenter, Cat Flea lsuagcenter.com
• Milo & Phillips, Cell Biology by the Numbers 2 pages
  • How big are biochemical nuts and bolts
  • How big is an e coli cell and what is its mass
• Morgridge Institute, Rhinovirus Fact Sheet morgridge.org
• NASA APOD 2004 September 2 science.nasa.gov
• NASA APOD 2025 May 8 science.nasa.gov
• NASA Asteroid Fact Sheet nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov
• NASA Hubble science.nasa.gov
• NASA Hubble, Caldwell 80 science.nasa.gov
• NASA Hubble, Messier 31 science.nasa.gov
• NASA Moon Fact Sheet nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov
• NASA Photojournal 2 pages
  • Amazing andromeda galaxy
  • Olympus mons
• NASA Planetary Fact Sheet nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov
• NASA Scientific Visualization Studio svs.gsfc.nasa.gov
• NASA Sun Fact Sheet nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov
• NASA Voyager Interstellar Mission science.nasa.gov
• NASA, Ceres facts science.nasa.gov
• NASA, Mars facts science.nasa.gov
• NASA, Oort Cloud Facts science.nasa.gov
• NASA, Our Milky Way science.nasa.gov
• NASA, Space Station Facts nasa.gov
• National Park Service 2 pages
  • Statistics
  • Statue statistics
• Natural World Heritage Sites naturalworldheritagesites.org
• Nepal and China, 2020 (Kathmandu Post) kathmandupost.com
• NIST, Candela nist.gov
• NOAA Fisheries fisheries.noaa.gov
• OpenStax Astronomy 2e openstax.org
• Our World in Data (NCD-RisC) ourworldindata.org
• R&A Rules of Equipment randa.org
• Royal Museums Greenwich 2 pages
  • Research guide d1 rms titanic fact sheet
  • Rms titanic facts
• RP Photonics, Luminosity Functions (CIE) rp-photonics.com
• San Diego Zoo Library ielc.libguides.com
• San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance animals.sandiegozoo.org
• ScienceDaily 2008 sciencedaily.com
• ScienceDirect: Buckminsterfullerene sciencedirect.com
• ScienceDirect: Eukaryotic ribosome sciencedirect.com
• SERC Carleton, Tardigrades serc.carleton.edu
• Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel toureiffel.paris
• StatPearls, Histology, Platelets ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
• Texas A&M AgriLife: House dust mite texasinsects.tamu.edu
• Tully et al. 2014 (Space.com) space.com
• Tully et al. 2014, Nature nature.com
• University of Georgia Entomology ent.uga.edu
• University of Kentucky Entomology entomology.mgcafe.uky.edu
• Wentworth scale (Univ. of Hawaiʻi) manoa.hawaii.edu
• Wittkowski et al. 2012, A&A aanda.org
• World Athletics worldathletics.org
• ZEUS Collaboration 2016, Phys. Lett. B arxiv.org
• Zhu et al. 2020, NEJM pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Each element card names the datasets it draws on. 7 sources

• Periodic-Table-JSON and periodic-table datasets (compiled from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)
• mendeleev library (crust abundance, isotopes)
• NIST Handbook of Basic Atomic Spectroscopic Data (spectral lines for 15 elements)
• RDKit, MMFF94 force field (3D molecule shapes)
• USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025 (Indonesia notes)
• Wikipedia: Composition of the human body
• Wikipedia: Sun (photosphere)

Sizes and rates on each card link to the page they come from. 25 sources

• Alberts, Molecular Biology of the Cell 4 pages
  • NBK26834
  • NBK26880
  • NBK26888
  • NBK26941
• Atlas of Plant and Animal Histology (Univ. Vigo) mmegias.webs.uvigo.es
• Bar-On et al. 2020, eLife pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
• BioNumbers 100483 bionumbers.hms.harvard.edu
• Britannica, Red blood cells britannica.com
• Cell Biology by the Numbers 15 pages
  • How big are genomes
  • How big are mitochondria
  • How big are nuclei
  • How big is a human cell
  • How big is an e coli cell and what is its mass
  • How fast do molecular motors move on cytoskeletal filaments
  • How large are chloroplasts
  • How long do the different stages of the cell cycle take
  • How long does it take cells to copy their genomes
  • How many proteins are in a cell
  • How many ribosomes are in a cell
  • How quickly do different cells in the body replace themselves
  • What is faster transcription or translation
  • What is the frequency of rotary molecular motors
  • What is the thickness of the cell membrane
• Cooper, The Cell 3 pages
  • NBK9834
  • NBK9863
  • NBK9932
• Cosgrove 2005, Nature Reviews MCB nature.com
• Cramer et al. 2020, Nature Communications nature.com
• Encyclopedia of Reproduction 2e sciencedirect.com
• J Neurosci 2013, 33(10):4536 jneurosci.org
• Ke et al. 2020, Nature nature.com
• Luger et al. 1997, Nature ui.adsabs.harvard.edu
• MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit mrc-mbu.cam.ac.uk
• OpenStax Anatomy & Physiology 2e open.oregonstate.education
• Purves, Neuroscience ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
• Schnitzer & Block 1997, Nature nature.com
• Sender & Milo 2021, Nature Medicine nature.com
• Sender et al. 2021, PNAS medrxiv.org
• Sender, Fuchs & Milo 2016, PLoS Biology pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
• Smith et al. 2026, iScience sciencedirect.com
• StatPearls, Histology, Axon ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
• StatPearls, Nodes of Ranvier ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
• StatPearls, Physiology, Skeletal Muscle ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
• WHO Laboratory Manual, 4th ed. aab.org

Each body part card lists its sources at the bottom. 14 sources

• BodyParts3D, © The Database Center for Life Science (DBCLS), CC BY-SA 2.1 Japan (3D anatomy of one adult male)
• StatPearls (NCBI Bookshelf)
• MedlinePlus (NIH)
• NIDCD (NIH)
• American Academy of Dermatology
• American Academy of Ophthalmology
• American Dental Association
• American Heart Association
• Johns Hopkins Medicine
• Mayo Clinic
• Azevedo et al. 2009 (neurons in the brain)
• Helander & Fändriks 2014
• Ochs et al. 2004 (alveoli in the lungs)
• Sender et al. 2016

Each layer, plate, quake, volcano, current and city card names the source of its numbers. 23 sources

• USGS, This Dynamic Earth: Inside the Earth (layer thicknesses) pubs.usgs.gov
• PREM, Preliminary Reference Earth Model (Dziewonski & Anderson 1981): layer radii
• Wikipedia, Earth’s inner core (temperature estimates, Alfè et al.; Anzellini et al. 2013) en.wikipedia.org
• NASA, Sun facts (surface temperature) science.nasa.gov
• Bird 2003, An updated digital model of plate boundaries (PB2002), GeoJSON by Ahlenius / Nordpil github.com
• USGS, This Dynamic Earth: plate speeds (Mid-Atlantic Ridge, East Pacific Rise) pubs.usgs.gov
• USGS earthquake catalogue, magnitude 5.5+, 1965 to 2016 (compiled dataset) github.com
• Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program (volcano list) volcano.si.edu
• National Geographic, Plate tectonics and the Ring of Fire education.nationalgeographic.org
• Müller et al. 2019, Tectonics: global plate motion model (EarthByte), used for past coastlines and plate motion github.com
• USGS, This Dynamic Earth: Historical perspective (Pangaea) pubs.usgs.gov
• International Chronostratigraphic Chart (end of the Cretaceous, 66.0 million years ago)
• NOAA JetStream, Global atmospheric circulations (wind belts) noaa.gov
• The Indonesian throughflow, its variability and centennial change (Geoscience Letters 2018; INSTANT 2004 to 2007) geoscienceletters.springeropen.com
• Volkov et al. 2024, Florida Current transport observations (Nature Communications) nature.com
• Wikipedia, Antarctic Circumpolar Current (Meredith et al. 2011) en.wikipedia.org
• NOAA Ocean Service, Surface ocean currents (current paths) oceanservice.noaa.gov
• USGS, Volcanic Explosivity Index usgs.gov
• USGS, Largest eruption of the 20th century (Novarupta) usgs.gov
• Eruption facts from English Wikipedia articles: Youngest Toba eruption, Huckleberry Ridge Tuff, 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora, 1257 Samalas eruption, 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, Laki, 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull, 2022 Hunga Tonga eruption; ScienceDaily (Hunga Tonga plume, 2022)
• NOAA Ocean Exploration, How deep is the ocean? (Challenger Deep) oceanexplorer.noaa.gov
• Wikipedia, Kola Superdeep Borehole en.wikipedia.org
• The Kathmandu Post, Everest 8,848.86 m (Nepal and China, 2020) kathmandupost.com

The info panel for each planet names its data sources. 6 sources

• NASA NSSDCA Planetary Fact Sheet (sizes, orbits, tilts, spin times)
• JPL approximate planet positions, Standish 1992 orbital elements (where each planet is on any date)
• IAU WGCCRE (spin axis directions)
• NASA and IAU Minor Planet Center, March 2026 (moon counts)
• Solar System Scope, Solar Textures (Sun, planet and Moon surface maps, CC BY 4.0, made from NASA mission data; resized for the web)
• NASA New Horizons images (the Pluto and Charon maps are our own approximation)

Each star, planet and galaxy card names the source of its numbers. 12 sources

• Gaia Data Release 3 (ESA), star positions and distances cosmos.esa.int
• Hipparcos catalogue (ESA 1997) and new reduction (van Leeuwen 2007) cosmos.esa.int
• Wikipedia, List of nearest stars (Gaia distances for the 41 neighbours) en.wikipedia.org
• Published distances for single stars: Joyce et al. 2020 (Betelgeuse), Schiller & Przybilla 2008 (Deneb), Hummel et al. 2013 (Alnitak), Torres et al. 2022 (Castor), Drimmel et al. 2021 (Albireo), Piccotti et al. 2020 (Sheratan), Ottoni et al. 2022 (Alnasl)
• Stellarium sky cultures, western constellation lines github.com
• Planets: Anglada-Escudé et al. 2016 and Faria et al. 2022 (Proxima Centauri); González Hernández et al. 2024 and Basant et al. 2025 (Barnard’s Star); Hatzes et al. 2000 and Thompson et al. 2025 (Epsilon Eridani); Gillon et al. 2017 and Agol et al. 2021 (TRAPPIST-1); Mayor & Queloz 1995 (51 Pegasi)
• NASA Science, Exoplanets (confirmed planet count) science.nasa.gov
• GRAVITY Collaboration 2019 (distance to the galactic centre) aanda.org
• NASA StarChild (galaxy size, the Sun’s lap time and speed) starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov
• NASA Blueshift, How many stars in the Milky Way? asd.gsfc.nasa.gov
• NASA, Voyager 1 (speed) science.nasa.gov
• NASA/JPL-Caltech, The Milky Way Galaxy (map the spiral arms follow) science.nasa.gov

• BodyParts3D anatomy models © The Database Center for Life Science (DBCLS), licensed CC BY-SA 2.1 Japan. Converted and simplified for the web. Used in Body Atlas.
• Element data from Periodic-Table-JSON, compiled from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0. Selected and reformatted. Used in Element Atlas.
• PB2002 plate boundaries by Peter Bird, GeoJSON by Hugo Ahlenius / Nordpil, licensed ODC-BY 1.0. Used in Earth Engine.
• Müller et al. 2019 plate motion model by EarthByte, licensed CC BY 4.0, run with pygplates. Used in Earth Engine.
• Solar System Scope surface maps of the Sun, planets and Moon (INOVE), licensed CC BY 4.0, resized. Used in Sol Orrery and Quark to Cosmos.
• three.js (MIT licence) draws the 3D scenes in every exhibit.
• pako (MIT licence) unpacks the anatomy data in Body Atlas.
• Stellarium sky cultures, western (modern) constellation lines, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Used in Milky Way Atlas.
• star-catalog-lite (MPL-2.0), bright-star positions from Gaia DR3, Hipparcos and the Yale Bright Star Catalogue; d3-celestial by Olaf Frohn (BSD licence), star names and colours. Used in Milky Way Atlas.
• RDKit calculated the 3D molecule shapes in Element Atlas.
• Sora, IBM Plex Mono, IBM Plex Sans and Big Shoulders Display typefaces, served by Google Fonts.
• Where a licence is ShareAlike (CC BY-SA), our adapted versions of that data are shared under the same licence.
• Concept, direction and review by Samrisyad Fadhlurrahman.