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. Which telescopes have found the most exoplanets?
  2. How fast has the world come online?

Chart 1 of 2 · Space

Which telescopes have found the most exoplanets?

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

NASA's Kepler space telescope found 2,787 confirmed exoplanets, and 550 more on K2, the second mission it flew after a breakdown in 2013. NASA's TESS, launched in 2018, had found 1,012 as of November 2026; the most of any facility is Kepler's 2,787. "Multiple Observatories" means several shared the discovery.

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 Exoplanet Archive, Planetary Systems Composite Data (Public domain (NASA data); this research has made use of the NASA Exoplanet Archive, operated by Caltech under contract with NASA) · Data as of Nov 4, 2026

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Chart 2 of 2 · World

How fast has the world come online?

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

73.6% of the world's people used the internet in 2025, up from 15.6% in 2005, the first year the World Bank gives a world figure. It counts people who used the internet at least once in the previous three months. The world figures are estimates by the International Telecommunication Union.

How to read this chart

Each point is the share of the world's people who used the internet at least once in the previous three months, as estimated by the International Telecommunication Union. The axis starts at zero, so the height shows the true share. The steeper the line, the faster people were coming online.

Questions to discuss

  1. About what share of the world was online in the first year on the chart, and in the latest year?
  2. Did the share grow faster in some years than others? What could have sped it up?
  3. Using the internet once in three months counts here. What does this number leave out about how people get online?

Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators: Individuals using the Internet (% of population) (CC BY 4.0 (credit the World Bank)) · Data as of Dec 31, 2025

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