Are people at the South Pole upside down?
An astrophysicist who spent time doing research at the South Pole gets to the bottom of how things feel at the ends of the Earth.
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com.
Are people on the South Pole walking upside down from the rest of the world? – Ralph P., U.S.
When I was standing at the South Pole, I felt the same way I feel anywhere on Earth because my feet were still on the ground and the sky was still overhead.
I’m an astrophysicist from Wisconsin who lived at the South Pole for seven weeks from December 2024 to January 2025 to work on an array of detectors looking for extremely high energy particles from outer space.
I didn’t feel upside down, but there were some differences that still made the South Pole feel flipped over from what I was used to.
As someone who loves looking for the Moon, I noticed that the face of the man on the Moon was flipped over, like he went from
Read These Next
US migrant flights to Liberia evoke troubling history of sending people deemed unwanted to the West
In the 1800s, West Africa became a focal point for efforts to remove Black people from America. The…
We’ve tracked $80M of spending on almost 170 AI-generated political ads this year – it’s weird
Almost 170 ads and $80 million in spending and only 31% with a disclaimer: Here’s what researchers…
Florida’s limited ban on Flock cameras only scratches the surface of widespread surveillance concern
The sudden proliferation of Flock cameras and abuses has led to a response from Florida lawmakers, but…
