It’s a bold move to try and school an actual astronaut about the ins and out of space – particularly when you’re arguing how the Earth is actually flat.
Astronaut Terry Virts has been up into space and has seen first hand what our planet looks like from way up above.
However, this did not deter conspiracy theorist Mark Sargent from insisting we all live on a disc – with NASA concealing our true reality from us.
It’s still unclear what NASA’s motive would be for doing this… maybe to stop adrenalin junkies from bungee jumping from the edge?
During a segment on ITV‘s Good Morning Britain – which will make anyone with the slightest appreciation for science groan in agony – Sargent laid out his hypothesis before a baffled Piers and Susanna.
Sargent ‘reasoned’:
I think the Earth is flat, that the biggest reason is go to the beach with a high-powered HD camera and look off into the distance.
About ten, fifteen years ago, you could see ships go over the horizon right? Now you can bring it back into frame. All you have to do is crank up the zoom.
Technology has changed everything. And yes, as much as Terry is one of my countrymen, I respect that, he’s a commander in the United States military which means he can keep secrets.
He continued:
What we’re talking about here is very simple, like the graphs, we’re talking about all the world’s a stage and you’re living basically in a big sound stage and nobody figured out until about 1956.
When Shakespeare wrote ‘All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players’, I’m not entirely convinced this is what he had in mind?…
Sargent also noted:
The first blue marble shot of the earth was taken by Apollo 17 in 1972 and the second one was two summers ago. We had three decades with no blue marble shots. Why?
If this place was built, it was built by someone, so we’re not alone.
Check out Sargent’s alternative view of the world below:
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At an apparent loss for words, Piers turned to Virts – who’s spent 200 days at the International Space Station – for his side of the ‘debate’.
Unsurprisingly, Sargent’s rant did not make Virts question his entire career, neither did he confess he’d been harbouring high level secrets for decades.
Describing the debate as being ‘easier than Brexit or marriage’, Virts patiently explained:
So they put me on a space shuttle and they hit the red button and I launched into space, going east bound at 17,000 miles an hour.
Thankfully I came back around to the other side. If the Earth were flat I would have kept on going.
Virts even showed Sargent photographic images he’d taken while aboard the International Space Station back in 2015 – showing the Earth looking very round indeed.
The images have now been published in his book View From Above.
Suspicious Sargent remained unconvinced – claiming the photographs had been doctored. There’s just no pleasing some…
Virts later tweeted, ‘Matter settled. The Earth is round! Now on to bigger and more important issues…. ‘
Sadly, I don’t think Flat-Earthers can be convinced by logic…
Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.