Earth's Shape
At first glance, the ground seems flat, but photos from space, like the famous “Blue Marble” image by the Apollo 17 shuttle, show it to be round.
Ancient Greeks figured this out long before space travel. They observed Earth's curved shadow on the Moon during a lunar eclipse, proving its shape.
Galileo’s observations confirmed that planets orbit the Sun and are spherical, suggesting Earth, as a planet, is also spherical.
You can also see this by watching a ship sail over the horizon. The bottom of the ship disappears before the top, something that wouldn’t happen if the Earth were flat.
Earth is an oblate spheroid that is slightly flattened at the poles.
The equator divides Earth into the northern and southern hemispheres, with the northern hemisphere including North America and Europe and the southern hemisphere including South America and Australia.
The prime meridian, which is 0 degrees longitude, and the international date line, the 180 degress meridian, divide the world into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, including Asia and the Americas, respectively.
Earth’s Shape
Earth may look flat from where we stand, but it is actually an oblate spheroid—meaning it is mostly round but slightly flattened at the p…
At first glance, the ground seems flat, but photos from space, like the famous “Blue Marble” image by the Apollo 17 shuttle, show it to be round.
Ancient Greeks figured this out long before space travel. They observed Earth's curved shadow on the Moon during a lunar eclipse, proving its shape.
Galileo’s observations confirmed that planets orbit the Sun and are spherical, suggesting Earth, as a planet, is also spherical.
You can also see this by watching a ship sail over the horizon. The bottom of the ship disappears before the top, something that wouldn’t happen if the Earth were flat.
Earth is an oblate spheroid that is slightly flattened at the poles.
The equator divides Earth into the northern and southern hemispheres, with the northern hemisphere including North America and Europe and the southern hemisphere including South America and Australia.
The prime meridian, which is 0 degrees longitude, and the international date line, the 180 degress meridian, divide the world into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, including Asia and the Americas, respectively.
At first glance, the ground seems flat, but photos from space, like the famous “Blue Marble” image by the Apollo 17 shuttle, show it to be round.
Ancient Greeks figured this out long before space travel. They observed Earth's curved shadow on the Moon during a lunar eclipse, proving its shape.
Galileo’s observations confirmed that planets orbit the Sun and are spherical, suggesting Earth, as a planet, is also spherical.
You can also see this by watching a ship sail over the horizon. The bottom of the ship disappears before the top, something that wouldn’t happen if the Earth were flat.
Earth is an oblate spheroid that is slightly flattened at the poles.
The equator divides Earth into the northern and southern hemispheres, with the northern hemisphere including North America and Europe and the southern hemisphere including South America and Australia.
The prime meridian, which is 0 degrees longitude, and the international date line, the 180 degress meridian, divide the world into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, including Asia and the Americas, respectively.
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