Flat Earth

Do "practical calculations" prove that the United Nations grossly overestimates the size of the world's total population? No, that's not true: The claim derives from a flat-earther's speculations. They ignore the fact that people living in rural areas in India account for two-thirds of the country's overall population. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Instagram on February…

Are there secret, hidden pyramids in Bosnia that are older and taller than the Egyptian pyramids? No, that's not true: An archaeologist who is an expert on the Balkans told Lead Stories that the claims have been circulating for nearly 20 years and are not true. The massive hills near Visoko in Bosnia are not secret pyramids; they are natural…

Does a video of Mars filmed with a Nikon p1000 camera prove that Hubble Space Telescope images of Mars are fake, and that Mars is not really a planet but a shining star that looks like "light shimmering in water"? No, that's not true: Images of Mars can vary considerably depending on the equipment, settings and atmospheric conditions. The resulting…

Is the International Space Station (ISS) in a swimming pool? No, that's not true: The ISS is in space, orbiting Earth, contrary to images on social media referring to the ISS as "International Swimming Station". The images show NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory with a full-size mock-up of the space station. It includes a large pool with technology used for training…

Does a photo show Elon Musk reading a book titled "The Flat-Earth Conspiracy"? No, that's not true: The image in the post has been digitally altered. The photo, which originated from another author's official social media page, displays Musk reading a book with a different cover and title. The claim appeared in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter,…

Did a "lead developer at Google Earth" say he believes the Earth is flat? No, that's not true: This claim originated from a 2017 article that Lead Stories was unable to verify as being authentic. We could not find any evidence that a lead developer at Google ever publicly said this or that a lead developer was ever suspended from…

Does NASA translated from Hebrew mean "to deceive" in English? No, that's not true: NASA is an English-language acronym that stands for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. In Hebrew, there is a word that is pronounced like "nasa," but it means to lift, to carry, and to bear. A University of Washington professor of Jewish literature, whose research focuses…

Does a rail gun's ability to "hit a target 100 miles away in a perfectly straight line" prove that the Earth is "missing curvature"? No, that's not true: Such claims are "absurd" and "completely nuts," two physicists told Lead Stories. That's because rail guns fire projectiles that are subject to the same laws of gravity as all other objects on…

Does the 93-million-mile vacuum separating the Earth from the sun prevent the latter from heating our planet? No, that's not true: A University of California, Berkeley physicist told Lead Stories that the claim is "completely false." The sun's energy is transmitted through electromagnetic radiation, including visible light and infrared radiation, which can travel through space without the need for a…

Did NASA and the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) stage a live stream video pretending to be in zero gravity on board the ISS, and was this hoax betrayed by a blooper where a ball printed like a globe fell to the floor as if under the force of Earth's gravity? No, that's not true: This video shows…