There has always been a heated debate between those who consider our planet Earth to be spherical and those who still consider it flat today. Although there is much evidence to show that the planet is spherical, they still cling to certain theories or evidence to show that it is flat. However, there is one thing they cannot cope with, and that is the movement of the stars in the sky. Why do they rotate differently depending on which hemisphere we are in?
As we say, there are still people in the world who believe that the Earth is flat and they always cling to some theories that could prove it. However, evidence like this from the stars is irrefutable.
The rotational movement of the Earth, the culprit
You may not know it, but if you take a fixed camera and photograph the sky throughout the night, you will see how in each photograph the stars are in a different place, since they are rotating around a point. If you superimpose all these photos, you will have an image very similar to the one you can see below, with a kind of paths that the stars follow with the rotation. This is known as “startrails” in English.
These paths or “startrails” are different depending on which hemisphere we are seeing the stars in. If we are in the southern hemisphere, we will see how the stars are rotating in the same clockwise direction, while if we are in the northern hemisphere, we will see how they are rotating just the opposite of this direction. Now, as we have said before, these stars are revolving around a point that does not seem to move, and that is none other than the star known as the North Star.
The North Star is on the same axis of rotation of the sky, and that explains why it is the only star that we never see move from the site. If at a certain moment we note its position, no matter when we check again if it has moved or not, the star will be exactly at the same point we look at it when we look at it. That explains why it has always been used as a guide in all kinds of explorations during the history of mankind.
Precisely, this rotation of the stars is one of the strongest arguments against those who today still believe that the Earth is completely flat. If the Earth were flat, we would always see the same stars, regardless of our position in the world. However, the stars we can see change depending on our position on Earth. On the other hand, in a spherical Earth model the stars we can see; however, they change and are totally different.
So why do the stars rotate in the opposite way depending on which hemisphere we are in? The answer is because these stars are not rotating, but it is actually the planet Earth that is rotating. If, for example, you stood right at the north pole, you would be seeing how the stars move perfectly around the Polar Star due to the movement of the Earth, since, as we have told you before, this star is right on the same axis of rotation. from the sky.
