Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield gained notoriety for chronicling his life aboard the International Space Station -- his pictures of Earth from "space" were shared by millions on social media.
Hadfield served for 2 years as Commander of the ISS (Expedition 35) before retiring from NASA in 2013. He later wrote a book called "An Astronauts Guide to Life on Earth." The picture below is from his book. It is prominently featured at Chapter 2 (Lift Off) and was apparently taken by him while traveling to the ISS.
The picture appears to have been captured from an elevation of approximately 30 miles (low Earth orbit).
If we hold a ruler or straight-edge to the horizon it is clearly FLAT and straight. However, a certain number of globe theorists have argued that the horizon appears flat because the picture does not reveal enough of it to SEE the Earth's curvature.
So lets 'guesstimate' the TOTAL distance of the horizon revealed in this picture by focusing on the Moon shall we?
According to space.com the Moon's radius is 1,079 miles. Double those figures to get its diameter 2,158 MILES.
If we can agree that the Moon's SIZE relative to the horizon is not distorted (and perhaps it could be) then the Moon in the Astronaut's picture conservatively consumes 25% of the horizon, agreed? Now, if we were to copy and paste three more Moons across this picture, one could reasonably assume Hadfield's picture should reveal 8600 MILES of TOTAL horizon, i.e Moon's diameter 2,159.2 x 4.
According to space.com, the Earth's radius is 3959 miles, and 3959 miles x 2 equates to a diameter of 7918 MILES.
Therefore, Galileo's assumptions about the size of both the Earth and the Moon suggests that this picture, taken by NASA Astronaut Chris Hadfield, and which appears in his book, should reveal MORE than the ENTIRE TOP HALF of the spinning ball Earth.
Yet I cannot detect even a single mile of curvature in the picture, can you, or anyone?
So the burning question I have for Mr. Hadfield is this: Are you a "Flat Earther?" ... and is your picture a cryptic message from YOU to reveal to the rest of mankind what you obviously saw whilst looking out the window of the ISS every day for nearly two years?
It wouldn't be the first time that a NASA Astronaut has come clean -- look up Wernher Von Braun Psalms 19.1.
And finally Mr. Hadfield, if it wasn't your intent to reveal the Earth's true shape in your book, how did THIS particular picture ever make it past the team of NASA graphic artists and their Earth 'shaping' software?
Disclosure: This picture was taken by the author with an iPhone 5s at a Chapter's Bookstore. The author did not buy the book.
