Are people at the South Pole upside down?

Astrophysicist Abigail Bishop shares her experience living at the South Pole for seven weeks, where she noticed some differences that made it feel like the world was “flipped over” from what she was used to.
The main difference Bishop observed was how the Moon and constellations appeared in the night sky, with the face of the man on the Moon being flipped over and craters appearing on the bottom instead of the top.
Bishop explains that this phenomenon occurs because people living in the Southern Hemisphere see the world from a different perspective than those in the Northern Hemisphere, resulting in seemingly opposite orientations.
From an astronomical perspective, astronauts on space missions can see one side of the Earth’s sphere at once, and would see people at the South Pole standing upside down from those at the North Pole.
Bishop uses a simple analogy to explain why this happens: just as our fingers point “down” when holding a baseball between them, but appear to point in different directions from a friend’s perspective, Earth’s gravitational pull points us all towards its center, creating the illusion of being “up” or “down” depending on one’s location.

At the South Pole, which way is up? Abigail Bishop

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Are people on the South Pole walking upside down from the rest of the world? – Ralph P., U.S.

When I was standing at the South Pole, I felt the same way I feel anywhere on Earth because my feet were still on the ground and the sky was still overhead.

I’m an astrophysicist from Wisconsin who lived at the South Pole for seven weeks from December 2024 to January 2025 to work on an array of detectors looking for extremely high energy particles from outer space.

I didn’t feel upside down, but there were some differences that still made the South Pole feel flipped over from what I was used to.

As someone who loves looking for the Moon, I noticed that the face of the man on the Moon was flipped over, like he went from 🙂 to 🙃. All the craters that I was used to seeing on the top of the Moon from Wisconsin were now on the bottom – because I was looking at the Moon from the Southern Hemisphere instead of the Northern Hemisphere.

An image showing the Moon and the Earth, and how the Moon looks different from one end of the Earth than the other. — How the Moon looks depends on your point of view.
The Planetary Society, CC BY-SA

After noticing this difference, I remembered something similar in the night skies of New Zealand, a country near Antarctica where my fellow travelers and I got our big red coats that kept us warm at the South Pole. I had looked for Orion, a constellation that in the Northern Hemisphere is viewed as a hunter holding a bow and drawing an arrow from his quiver. In the night sky of New Zealand, Orion looked like he was doing a handstand.

Everything in the sky felt upside down and opposite, compared with what I was used to. A person who lives in the Southern Hemisphere might feel the same about visiting the Arctic or the North Pole.

A view of Earth from space. — ‘The Big Blue Marble’ photo, taken in 1972 by the crew of Apollo 17.
NASA

An out-of-this-world perspective

To understand what’s happening, and why things are really different but also feel very much the same, it might be useful to back up a bit from Earth’s surface. Like into outer space. On space missions to the Moon, astronauts could see one side of the Earth’s sphere at once.

If they had superhero vision, an astronaut would see the people at the South Pole and North Pole standing upside down from each other. And a person at the equator would look like they were sticking straight out the side of the planet. In fact, even though they might be standing on the equator, people in Colombia and Indonesia would also look like they were upside down from each other, because they would be sticking out from opposite sides of the Earth.

Of course, if you asked each person, they would say, “My feet are on the ground, and the sky is up.”

That’s because Earth is essentially a really big ball whose gravitational pull on every one of us points to the center of the planet. The direction that Earth pulls us in is what people call “down” all over the planet. Think about holding a baseball between your pointer fingers. From the perspective of your fingertips on the ball’s surface, both are pointing “down.” But from the perspective of a friend nearby, your fingers are pointing in different directions – though always toward the center of the ball.

These relationships between people on the Earth’s surface are good for a little bit of fun, though. While I was at the South Pole, I pointed my body in the same direction as my friends in Wisconsin – by doing a handstand. But if you look at the picture the other way around, it looks like I’m holding up the entire planet, like Superman.

A person does a handstand on a white surface near a red-and-white striped pole surrounded by flags of various nations. — This is the right way up: Abigail Bishop does a handstand at the ceremonial South Pole.
Abigail Bishop

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Abigail Bishop receives funding from National Science Foundation Award 2013134 and has received funding from the Belgian American Education Foundation.

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Q. Are people at the South Pole upside down?

A. No, people at the South Pole do not feel like they are walking upside down from the rest of the world.

Q. How does the direction “up” change depending on your location on Earth?

A. The direction “up” is determined by the gravitational pull of the Earth, which points to the center of the planet. This means that people at different latitudes will feel like they are standing in different directions relative to each other.

Q. Why do things look different in the night sky when viewed from the Southern Hemisphere?

A. Because the constellations and stars appear differently depending on your location on Earth, due to the tilt of the planet’s axis.

Q. Can you explain why people at the South Pole might feel like they are standing upside down compared to someone at the North Pole?

A. Yes, because the South Pole is in the Southern Hemisphere, while the North Pole is in the Northern Hemisphere. This means that people at these two locations will appear to be standing in opposite directions relative to each other.

Q. How does this relate to the way we experience gravity on Earth?

A. Gravity pulls us towards the center of the planet, which is why we feel like we are standing “down” regardless of our location on Earth.

Q. Can you give an example of how this affects our daily lives?

A. Yes, for example, if you were to stand on the equator and look at someone in Colombia or Indonesia, they would appear to be sticking straight out of the side of the planet, due to the tilt of the Earth’s axis.

Q. How does this concept apply to space travel and exploration?

A. In space, astronauts can see one side of the Earth’s sphere at once, which means that people on different parts of the planet will appear to be standing in opposite directions relative to each other.

Q. Can you explain why it might feel like things are “flipped over” when viewed from a different location?

A. Yes, because our brains use visual cues and spatial relationships to understand our surroundings, and these cues can change depending on where we are looking at the world.

Q. How does this relate to the way we experience the world around us?

A. Our perception of the world is influenced by many factors, including gravity, perspective, and spatial relationships, which can affect how we experience things like up and down, left and right, and forward and backward.