Why Everest isn’t Earth’s closest point to space

Why Everest isn’t Earth’s closest point to space

If you measure from sea level, Mount Everest is the highest mountain. But if you measure distance from the centre of the Earth, a different winner emerges because our planet isn’t a perfect sphere, it’s an oblate spheroid that bulges at the equator. That bulge makes points near the equator start farther from Earth’s centre than places at higher latitudes. So “closest to space” depends on this centre-to-surface distance, not just height above sea level.

Chimborazo beats Everest from Earth’s centre

Ecuador’s Mount Chimborazo sits almost on the equator. Although its summit is about 6,263 meters above sea level (far lower than Everest’s 8,849 meters) Chimborazo’s equatorial head start puts its summit roughly two kilometres farther from Earth’s centre than Everest’s. That makes Chimborazo the farthest point on Earth’s surface from the planet’s core and, by this definition, the point “closest to the stars.”

Why the equator gets a “head start”

Earth’s rotation causes a slight outward bulge around the equator, increasing the equatorial radius by about 21 kilometres compared with the polar radius. A mountain near the equator therefore begins higher off the centre before any rock rises above sea level. That’s why an equatorial volcano like Chimborazo can outrank a Himalayan giant on the centre-to-summit measure, even though it is shorter in the sea-level sense.

So where does “space” begin?

Another wrinkle is how we define the edge of space. Many organizations use the Kármán line at 100 kilometres above mean sea level, while some U.S. definitions start at 50 miles (about 80 kilometres). Either way, both Everest and Chimborazo are far below those altitudes. The “closest to space” claim here is strictly about being farthest from Earth’s centre, not about touching any agreed boundary of space.

The takeaway for geography nerds

Everest is still the tallest above sea level, and Mauna Kea (measured from base on the ocean floor) is the tallest by total height. But if you’re asking which point on land reaches furthest from the planet’s centre—hence, “closest to outer space”—Chimborazo wins thanks to Earth’s equatorial bulge. It’s a neat example of how changing the yardstick can flip a record.