Flat Earthers Went to Antarctica to Look at The Sun. Here’s What Happened

In an unexpected conclusion to a project called The Final Experiment, several prominent Flat Earth advocates have reconsidered their stance.

“All right, guys, sometimes you have to admit you’re wrong in life,” declared Jeran Campanella, a well-known flat-Earth theorist who participated in an all-expenses-paid trip to Antarctica to observe the Sun circling the sky for an entire day.
“And I thought there was no 24-hour Sun; in fact, I was pretty confident about it.”

For the past three years, Will Duffy, a pastor from Denver, Colorado, has worked to unite a mix of YouTube content creators from both ‘globist’ and ‘flat-earther’ communities to “resolve the shape of the Earth” through a single, definitive observation.

The two ‘teams’ traveled to Union Glacier Camp – a private, full-service facility located just 1,138 kilometers (707 miles) from the South Pole – to witness firsthand whether the reports of a Sun that doesn’t set were part of some grand conspiracy or genuine observations demonstrating planetary physics in action.

Throughout history, cultures have held varying perspectives on what lies beyond the horizon and how the land we stand on connects to the heavens above. In modern times, flat-Earth beliefs resurfaced in the 19th century as a challenge to scientific consensus, often tied to religious views or political ideologies that shared a common skepticism of academic authority. Today, social media has amplified the voices of many who question what most accept as well-established fact.

Flat Earthers Went to Antarctica to Look at The Sun. Here’s What Happened
A Sun circling a flat Earth is hard to reconcile with 24 hours of sunlight in Antarctica. (Świat Geocentryczny/Wikimedia commons/PD)

“It’s really about the power of knowledge and the growing distrust in what we once saw as the gatekeepers of knowledge – like academics, scientific agencies, or governments,” said Jennifer Beckett, a communications expert from the University of Melbourne, in a 2019 interview with Anders Furze on the topic.

While flat-Earth advocates don’t agree on how their version of the world would appear from a distance, most models must explain personal observations. For example, phenomena such as the Sun’s apparent movement or the way objects shrink as they approach the horizon must still make sense if Earth is a giant pancake bordered by Antarctic ice.

Scientific explanations of the Sun’s seasonal patterns are relatively straightforward. On a tilted globe, each pole experiences alternating phases of continuous sunlight and endless night as Earth orbits the Sun.

Flat Earthers Went to Antarctica to Look at The Sun. Here’s What Happened
Antarctica has only two seasons because of Earth’s 23-degree axial tilt. (NASA-JPL/Caltech)

For some flat-Earth believers, the concept of Antarctica’s midnight Sun seems impossible to reconcile with the idea of standing on the edge of a circular plane. Like Campanella, many were certain it simply couldn’t occur.

Witnessing the Sun skim the horizon in person might dispel some conspiracy theories, though it might not be enough to convert all members of ‘team flat-Earth.’

Flat-Earth YouTube creator Austin Whitsitt admitted humbly that the Sun was “doing what they said it would do, very clearly.” However, he remains unconvinced about changing his worldview. “I don’t think it disproves plane Earth; I don’t think it proves a globe. I think it’s just a single data point.”

Belief formation is a complicated process, shaped by a mix of trusted shared experiences and individual perceptions, which help us craft personal narratives that align with our values and explain what we see.

Duffy’s Final Experiment should be far from final – serving instead as a powerful example of trust-building and the importance of challenging even our deepest convictions when presented with the opportunity.



 

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