Chart assignment

Charts to read and discuss

Read each chart, then answer its questions. Every chart shows its source and date; open it for a table of the numbers and the data to download.

  1. What are the closest asteroid flybys ever recorded?
  2. How fast are US prices rising?
  3. Are U.S. roads getting safer per mile driven?

Chart 1 of 3 · Space

What are the closest asteroid flybys ever recorded?

The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.

As of November 2026, the closest known asteroid flyby was 2025 UC11 (Oct 30, 2025), about 228 km above Earth's surface; the International Space Station orbits about 400 km up. The 15 flybys here were by small rocks, roughly 1 to 10 meters across, and nearly all are recent, because only modern surveys can spot rocks that small. JPL measures from Earth's center, so the chart subtracts Earth's average radius (6,371 km); asteroids that hit Earth aren't counted.

Questions to discuss

  1. In one sentence of your own, what does this chart show?
  2. Find the biggest change or difference in the chart. What might explain it?
  3. Who collected these numbers, and how recent are they? What else would you want to know before drawing a conclusion?

Source: NASA/JPL Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), SBDB Close Approach Data (Public domain (NASA data); credit NASA/JPL-Caltech CNEOS) · Data as of Nov 4, 2026

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Chart 2 of 3 · Inflation

How fast are US prices rising?

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The inflation rate was 3.7% in September 2026: how much consumer prices changed from the same month a year earlier. Each point makes that comparison, back to 1914, the first year BLS can compare. Inflation peaked at 23.7% in June 1920 and at 14.8% in March 1980; the 9.1% of June 2022 was the highest since 1981. Prices fell as fast as 15.8% a year in 1921 and 10.7% in 1932. BLS collected no prices in October 2025, during a lapse in federal funding, so that month and October 2026 are missing.

How to read this chart

Each point compares consumer prices in a month with the same month a year earlier. A value of 3 means things cost about 3% more than a year before; below zero means prices fell. The chart shows how fast prices change, not how high they are.

Questions to discuss

  1. Find two times when inflation was highest. What was happening in the country then?
  2. If inflation falls from 8% to 3%, are prices going down, or just rising more slowly?
  3. Find a stretch when the line is below zero. Why might falling prices be bad news for workers and businesses?

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index (CPI-U, all items) (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Sep 30, 2026

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Chart 3 of 3 · Road safety

Are U.S. roads getting safer per mile driven?

The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.

In 2024 there were 1.19 deaths for every 100 million miles driven, down from 3.35 in 1980. The lowest rate was 1.08 in 2014; it jumped to 1.34 in 2020, when people drove less but deaths rose. Miles driven are the Federal Highway Administration's estimates.

How to read this chart

Each point is the number of people killed in traffic crashes for every 100 million miles Americans drove that year. Dividing by miles driven turns a count into a rate, so years when people drove more or less can be compared fairly.

Questions to discuss

  1. About what fraction of the 1980 rate is the rate in the latest year?
  2. In 2020 people drove less, but the rate went up. What could explain that?
  3. Why is deaths per mile a fairer way to compare years than the total number of deaths?

Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) and FHWA Highway Statistics (table VM-2) (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Dec 31, 2024

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