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.

Author: Abigail Bishop on Jul 07, 2025
 
Source: The Conversation
At the South Pole, which way is up? Abigail Bishop

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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

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