The visualization is based on observations from the Gravity field and Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE), a European Space Agency (ESA) satellite that operated in orbit from 2009 to 2013. For those four years, the satellite mapped out Earth’s gravity field with unprecedented precision, before it was deliberately destroyed in atmospheric reentry. Since then scientists have combed over its measurements to create maps of Earth’s lithosphere, the tectonically active layer that includes the planet’s crust and outer mantle.