Dr. James O’Donoghue, a former NASA scientist who now works for Japan’s space agency JAXA, took to Twitter and started what New Scientist considers an important planetary discussion… which ringed planet emoji is the most accurate?
I'm a planetary scientist with published papers specifically on Saturn's atmosphere/rings, so thought it'd be fun to rank the "Ringed Planet" emojis🪐
— Dr James O'Donoghue (@physicsJ) February 26, 2020
First I'm gonna assume they're trying to be SATURN ok, so I'll be ranking their accuracy based on that. Results end of thread!👇 pic.twitter.com/BVcI9EHNxf
Included in this very scientific dilemma are the following contestants: Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, and Whatsapp. O’Donoghue rated them according to the planet itself’s accuracy in terms of banded structure and colors, the rings and their gap, and the tilt which should be 26.7°.
And the winning planet is… Whatsapp!
Number 1 is Whatsapp! Apple was a close second, but I was so impressed by Whatsapp-Saturn's tilt & rings being so accurate that it was an easy choice: the rings are Saturn's crown jewels!
— Dr James O'Donoghue (@physicsJ) February 26, 2020
As I said this assumes they're trying to match Saturn, may not be true. Thx for reading!🪐 pic.twitter.com/g0FOtID7Em
Now, O’donoghue may have called Twitter the “most offensive” out of all the contestants but there’s actually another contestant that was disqualified.
BONUS. This is by OpenMoji. It didn't even deserve to be up there with the others.
— Dr James O'Donoghue (@physicsJ) February 26, 2020
The emoji is called Ringed Planet, and in this case its rings don't even connect, so can we even say "ringed" at all?
This ringed planet can get out of our solar system rn pic.twitter.com/pi5Y5Tyqei
This fun take on science and emojis has even inspired other scientists to do their own versions such as rating the moon…
Inspired by @physicsJ , I decided to take a look at the moon emojis and rank them based on scientific accuracy with some consideration of artistic style pic.twitter.com/3OGUJXY1NE
— Christopher Becke (@BeckePhysics) February 26, 2020
..and even microbes!
Taking a page from @physicsJ's book, I'm going to rate the most common microbe emoji on their microbiality and charisma! 🔬🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/GO5PyuZEnz
— Lev Tsypin (he/him) (@LMT_Spoon) February 26, 2020
Which emoji would you like scientists to judge next?
