Globe

A globe is a spherical model that represents the Earth or other celestial spheres. Unlike a flat map, a globe preserves the three-dimensional relationships of the surface, making it useful for understanding geography and astronomy.

Terrestrial globes show continents, oceans, political boundaries, and major cities, with latitude and longitude lines, the equator, and the prime meridian. They may be physical globes with raised relief to indicate mountains or political globes with different colors for states and countries. Celestial globes depict stars and constellations on an inner surface and are used in astronomy education to visualize the celestial sphere and the apparent arrangement of stars.

The idea of globes goes back to ancient times. The oldest surviving terrestrial globe is Martin Behaim's Erdapfel, dating to around 1492. Greek and medieval scholars contributed to the concept of a spherical Earth and to the graticule of latitude and longitude. Globes became common educational tools in Europe after the 16th century and continue to be produced in plastic or decorative forms, sometimes with illumination.

Globes aid spatial awareness, illustrate the curvature of the Earth, and can show day and night on illuminated models. They are less detailed than maps, less portable, and cannot display as much information at a single scale, but they convey true surface relationships more intuitively in some contexts.

The term globe also refers to the Earth itself, as in “the globe” or “our globe.” Globes come in various sizes and styles, including physical, political, and educational variants.