Disproving Flat Earth and Geocentrism with Astronomy: Our place in the Solar System

 By Jackson E. Roe

Pseudoscientific beliefs are on the rise in the Western world. Conspiracy theories about human spaceflight run rampant. The belief that the earth is flat, or that the sun orbits the earth are becoming ever more common notions among the public. I have set out to make astronomical observations and interview scientists and astronauts to refute these conspiratorial beliefs.

A popular belief among Geocentrists is that the earth is not in motion. There are several ways to refute this. A long exposure photograph on the equatorial plane in the night sky will show stars streaking across the background. However, some points of light will not create streaks. These are geostationary satellites that move with the earth’s rotation.

Geocentrists contend that the universe moves around the earth. A simple long exposure photograph of geostationary satellites proves that the earth is in fact in motion. As the earth goes through its daily rotation, the stars create streaks in the long exposure.

The chandler wobble is a 400 day cycle of oscillations on the earth’s axis. It is only detectable with highly sensitive ring laser gyroscopes. This slight movement around the axis only totals a few tens of meters. Not only does this prove the earth moves on its axis, but that the earth must be an oblate sphere, otherwise such a motion would not be possible.

The phases of Mercury and Venus show the structure of our solar system. The only way that these two planets could have significant phases is if their orbit around the sun is inside the earth’s orbit. The planets that orbit outside of earth’s orbit do not have great enough phase angles to have visible phase changes like Mercury and Venus. View Mars or Jupiter through a telescope throughout the year, you will not notice phases.

From the vantage point of Mars, if earth indeed orbits the sun, the earth should have phases like Mercury and Venus. Two spacecraft have imaged the earth and moon from Mars, the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Recon orbiter. Both of the probe’s images show the earth with phases. This proves that the earth is in orbit around the sun and inside of Mars’ orbit.

Earth with a half-phase as seen by the Mars global surveyor from Martian orbit.

A simple experiment using a light and golf balls can show the phase angles that prove our position in our solar system based on observations we can make of the planets. I made a heliocentric and geocentric model of the solar system and photographed the “planets” from the position of earth in each model. The the Geocentric model, all of the planets have phases. In the heliocentric model, only Venus and Mercury have significant phases.

The Heliocentric model set up.

“Venus” seen from “earth” in the heliocentric model.

“Mars” seen from “earth” in the heliocentric model. No phases.

The Geocentric model set up.

In the heliocentric model, both “Venus” and “Mars” have visible phases, as all the planets would in this system.

Venus and Mercury are also the only planets in the solar system that transit, or pass in front of, the sun. This is only possible if they were inside our orbit. Most geocentric models have the other planets (Mars, Jupiter, etc) orbiting the sun where they should also be visible to transits. This is not the case in reality, so a heliocentric solar system must therefore exist.

If earth orbits the sun, transits of earth should be visible from the outer planets looking inward. One such transit of the earth happened in 2005 from the vantage point of Saturn. While no probe was in orbit of Saturn with the camera power to image the transit at the time, earth based observatories monitored Saturn and saw it brighten through their telescopes as earth moved across the face of the sun and the phase angle of Saturn dropped to zero. Saturn then dimmed slightly as the earth moved out of the transit.

Venus with a visible phase photographed by the author in April, 2025.

The four largest moons of Jupiter prove that objects with small mass orbit objects of larger mass. This was first observed by Galileo. He concluded that the earth must therefore orbit the sun. He was correct, but it is only a matter of time before this fact again becomes heresy.

Data that proves a heliocentric solar system include phase angles of the planets, orbital periods and time in retrograde. Days in retrogradation for the planets are as follows.

Mercury- 21 days

Venus- 41 days

Mars- 72 days

Jupiter- 121 days

Saturn- 138 days

Uranus- 151 days

Neptune- 158 days

The lengths of each planet’s year indicates that earth is indeed the third planet from the sun and in orbit around the sun.

Mercury- 88 days

Venus- 225 days

Earth- 365 days

Mars-687 days

Jupiter- 4,333 days

etc.

Phase angles show that earth must be the third planet in orbit around the sun.

Mercury- 102 degrees

Venus- 130 degrees

Mars- 37 degrees

Jupiter- 8.7 degrees

Saturn- 3.2 degrees

Uranus- 1.4 degrees

Neptune- 0.9 degrees

It is now a household belief that we never went to the moon with the Apollo program. I believe that in a few generations it will be taught that humans did not actually visit the moon, or perhaps even space at all. There are several ways to conclusively demonstrate that the Apollo missions actually visited the moon.

Third party evidence for the moon landings is actually quite abundant. The Apollo lunar surface experiment package (ALSEP) continued to transmit for a few years after the Apollo missions. ALSEP transmissions were picked up in both the USSR and Germany by large radio telescopes. The Soviet Ratan-600, for example, found all of the ALSEP packages in the correct location and in agreement with NASA’s stated specifications for them in the 1970s.

I emailed Apollo 16 astronaut Charles Duke about the ALSEP deployment. Remarkably, he replied. He stated the following.

“I removed the ALSEP package from the rear of the LM and also the plutonium fuel module. Carried them to the deployment site and we began to deploy. As I recall there was a heat flow experiment, two seismic experiments, a magnetometer and maybe one other. John was responsible for hooking up the power source while I started to work on the heat flow experiment. There were a lot of cable around the central Station and John accidentally pulled loose the heat flow experiment power source while we abandoned it and went on to something else. Everything else deployed correctly and worked perfectly.”

TV transmissions were picked up independently by the Bochum observatory in Germany from the Apollo 16 lunar rover from the direction of the moon. Bochum obtained a live broadcast of the Astronauts near the lunar rover independent from NASA. Some still images of this broadcast have been published along with radio data.

Apollo 16 Lunar rover footage intercepted by the Bochum Observatory from the direction of the moon. The “stars” in the photograph are just radio interference.

Lunar retro reflectors were left on the moon by Apollo 11, 14 and 15. These reflectors were designed to reflect laser light from earth back to its source in order to measure lunar distance. Scientists all over the world have used observatories with lasers to make measurements with these reflectors.

I spoke to an American scientist who stated the following.

“They are precisely where they are supposed to be, exactly the size they are said to be, and oriented just as they should be.”

A group of Chinese scientists made laser measurements using the Apollo 15 LRR in 2018. They used observatories based in Yunnan, southern China. The paper they wrote on the subject was published in Chinese and was clearly not for Western consumption. They would have no reason to fabricate this information. This can only mean that the Apollo 15 mission actually landed on the moon.

Apollo 15's LRR.

The International space station is a common point of contention among conspiracy theorists and especially flat earthers. However, almost daily observations can be made for the ISS by anyone who will take the time to look. Online trackers keep tabs on where the station is in its 90 minute orbit around the earth. If you watch at the correct time, the ISS appears as a bright star or planet moving through the sky.

The ISS is equipped with a ham radio repeater that anyone can listen in to as it passes over. At 437.800 MHz, ham radio operators from all over the country can bounce signals back a forth off of the station’s ham radio repeater. This would only be possible if the repeater was in fact on the ISS and if the station was very high in altitude. I have personally heard a ham radio operator from San Antonio, about 500 miles away, while the station passed over. For scale, the average radio tower has a range of about 40 miles.

Radio with the ISS visible as a point of light in the upper right corner.

The ISS through 20X80 binoculars photographed by the author.

The frequency 437.800 MHz only produces broadcasts when the station is directly overhead at its scheduled times. Even during the day, when the station is passing over but is not visible, it can still be heard via radio.

The general shape of the ISS can be made through 10X50 binoculars and higher. It appears as an elongated “H” with the two sets of solar arrays being barely visible at this magnification. Some conspiracy theorists claim the station is actually a blimp or air ship. It is moving too quickly and is not areodynamic enough for this to be true. It is also clearly very high in altitude.

The altitude of the ISS is apparent in various ways. Often times the station will dim and disappear before going beyond the horizon. This is due to the fact that it is reflecting sunlight at a very high altitude. When the ISS moves into the shadow of the earth, the sunlight is blocked and it disappears. This also proves that the earth must be a sphere.

There is currently another space station in orbit as well, the Chinese Tiangong space station. Online trackers exist for this station and I have been able to photograph it as it passed over. However, Tiangong does not hold a ham radio repeater so it is not possible to listen in with civilian equipment. Through the same 10X50 binoculars, Tiangong just looks like a point of light. This is because Tiangong is much smaller than the ISS, and a higher magnification is required. This proves the high altitude of the station.

Tiangong as it passed over the USA.

The Apollo missions from the 1960s and 1970s had a unique vantage point viewing the earth. The moon is tidally locked, so it constantly faces earth. The moon orbits earth every 27 days. From this position and these dynamics it is possible to witness the earth’s 24 hour rotation. The Apollo astronauts did in fact see the earth rotate.

Pseudoscientists contend that the earth is fixed in space and does not rotate. They explain the precession of a Foucault pendulum or the readings of a laser gyroscope as being caused by the universe revolving around the earth. There are several ways to show that this is not the reality.

If the universe is causing the precession of a pendulum on the surface of earth, this force should weaken underground. Tidal forces weaken with depth. I am unaware of any Foucault pendulum experiments underground, however there is a large ring laser gyroscope in New Zealand that is held in a man made cavern at about 100 meters in depth. This gyroscope is sensitive enough to detect tiny variations in the earth’s rotation from deep underground, therefore it seems unlikely that this could be caused by the tidal force of the universe.

The length of the day on earth is not constant, it varies by incredibly small amounts of time. This can be due to distribution of mass on earth or even large earthquakes. As these phenomenon are located on earth, it is not possible that the revolution of the universe could cause these effects.

One of the most absurd claims from flat earthers is that there is a global conspiracy to convince the public that the earth is a sphere. This cannot explain the dynamics of geopolitics as we understand them. Nations like Iran and North Korea would not cooperate with the West in such a conspiracy.

North Korean state media has published images of their intercontinental ballistic missile test launches into space. These rocket launches are meant to intimidate the West, not to cooperate with them. The images published by North Korean media clear show the earth as a spheroid, and not flat.

The earth as seen from a photograph taken from a ballistic missile. Published by North Korean state media.

Space probes have been produced by many nations to explore the solar system. This began with the Sputnik satellite launched by the Soviet Union in the 1950s. It was followed closely by satellites and probes from the USA.

The USA and Soviet Union competed in space from the 1950s into the 1960s, 70s and even 80s. The Soviets launched many probes to Venus, while the USA focused on Mars and the outer solar system. Many early probes from both sides failed for various reasons, but later spacecraft were mostly successful.

As of 2025, thousands of satellites have been launched into earth orbit. I have seen them moving through the night sky, and have even seen them transit the sun using a solar filter on a telescope. It is quite possible that humanity will “devolve” to the point of no longer being able to launched spacecraft for various reasons. At this time it may be denied that humanity ever had probes and satellites in space.

Discoveries made by remote space probes sent to the other planets of the solar system are many. In my lifetime, I have watched the data return from many of these probes. The Spirit and Opportunity mars rovers figured heavily in my life as a science enthusiast. The space probe that most influenced my love of space was the Cassini probe that was sent around Saturn.

The Cassini probe arrived at Saturn in 2004 and remained there until 2017. During this period, beginning around 2006, I watched almost daily updates from the Cassini website from NASA. I remember an online countdown of flybys of the largest of Saturn’s moons, Titan. I would eagerly await the returned photos and data from each flyby.

In 2009 I watched, via a livestream on the internet, the launch of the Kepler space telescope. This telescope would go on to discover hundreds of planets around other stars. In 2021 the James Webb space telescope launched. I had awaited this telescope since I was a child. As I type this, James Webb is still in orbit discovering incredible things about the universe.

When someday it is denied that we ever sent out these probes, it may be possible to detect the James Webb space telescope. It should still be in L2 orbit beyond the moon thousands of years from now. Careful observation with earth based telescopes should eventually detect an object moving unlike the background stars. What you are seeing is the James Webb space telescope, so that you may know that it was really there.

Images of planets from space probes are real. Images from earth-based observatories are real. I have photographed both the rings of Saturn and the equatorial atmospheric bands in the clouds of Jupiter. These objects are in fact planets, as described by NASA and scientists around the world. I have confirmed this myself for the record for when it is someday denied that these ojects exist as we know them today.

Jupiter with equatorial bands and two of the Galilean moons. Photo by the author.