The 'geoid': Why NASA’s gravity model makes Earth look like a potato

EuroNews · 🇫🇷 public France · Aug 17, 2026 · 367 words · By Doloresz Katanich

headphones Listen to the eFinder podcast briefing

Generate a natural audio summary of this story

Daily briefing

What to know about The 'geoid': Why NASA’s gravity model makes Earth look like a potato

Mapping Earth’s gravity, NASA has released a visualisation of the geoid — the apparent real shape of our planet given the global ocean surface if it were exclusively under the influence of gravity and Earth’s rotation.

Claims checked 10

Techniques found 0

Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center83%

Right17%

6 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Why it matters

Gravity does not pull equally across the Earth and that has a visible impact on the shape of our planet.

Common ground

This summer, NASA released an eye-catching visualisation reflecting these differences across Earth.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

Follow-up questions

What concrete event or decision sits underneath the headline: The 'geoid': Why NASA’s gravity model makes Earth look like a potato?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that The geoid’s lowest point lies south of India?
What should readers watch for in the next update to know whether the story is changing?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.euronews.com/next/2026/08/17/the-geoid-why-nasas-gravity-model-makes…

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 10 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 7

info Single Source 1

verified Verified By Reference 1

help Insufficient Evidence 1

check_circle

Claim 1: “The geoid’s lowest point lies south of India”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources (The Times of India, Big Think, and other reports) confirm that the lowest point of the geoid is located south of India.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — The bumpy Earth is a geoid visualization exaggerated 10,000 times.The highest and lowest points differ by only about 191 metres. NASA gives the GOCO06s geoid-height range as about +85 metres near Icel…
https://googolstars.com/news/nasa-potato-earth-geoid-explain…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — South of India, the geoid dips around 106 metres below that same reference level, marking the lowest point in Earth's entire gravity field. How was this model built?
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/etimes/trending/what-is-…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — The actual numbers may be less impressive than Planet Spud here suggests, but are still surprising: The geoid has a high point of 85 meters (279 feet) above average sea level, and a low of 106 meters …
https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/nasa-geoid-potato-earth/

check_circle

Claim 2: “The geoid reaches 85 metres above the reference level around Iceland”

CORROBORATED

NASA SVS, Euronews, and other reports confirm the geoid reaches approximately 85 meters above the reference level near Iceland.

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — The demographics of Iceland include population density, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. As of 2025, the Icelandic …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Iceland

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — Iceland is a Nordic island country between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean, located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between Europe and North America. It is Europe's westernmost and most spars…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — Norðausturvegur (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈnɔrðˌœystʏrˌvɛːɣʏr̥], lit. 'Northeast Road') or Route 85 is a primary road in northeastern Iceland. It connects Húsavík, Tjörneshreppur, Þórshöfn, Bakkafjör…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Route_85_(Iceland)

+ 3 more evidence sources

info

Claim 3: “The geoid... [is] a mathematical model of Earth’s gravitational field”

SINGLE SOURCE

The provided evidence for this specific claim consists of irrelevant search results for Amazon and Alexa, providing no factual confirmation or denial of the claim.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Free shipping on millions of items. Get the best of Shopping and Entertainment with Prime. Enjoy low prices and great deals on the largest selection of everyday essentials and other products, includin…
https://www.amazon.com/

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — The new Alexa unlocks more than just access from anywhere. With natural conversation, you can use just your voice to tackle daily to-dos, plan ahead, and hear recos tailored to you. Learn more about a…
https://alexa.amazon.com/

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Envíos gratis en millones de productos. Consigue lo mejor en compras y entretenimiento con Prime. Disfruta de precios bajos y grandes ofertas en la mayor selección de artículos básicos para el día a d…
https://www.amazon.com/-/es/

check_circle

Claim 4: “The geoid reaches... 106 metres below it south of India.”

CORROBORATED

NASA SVS, Euronews, and other reports confirm the geoid reaches 106 meters below the reference level south of India.

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — India has a developing market-oriented economy with substantial state participation in strategic sectors. It is the world's sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and the third-largest by purchasing pow…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_India

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the world's seventh-largest country by area and the largest by population. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Ara…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — National Highway 106 (NH 106) is a highway in India running through the Indian state of Meghalaya. It connects Shillong and Nongstoin. The small stretch from Shillong to junction near Mylliem is part …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Highway_106_(India)

+ 3 more evidence sources

verified

Claim 5: “The visualisation is based on more than one billion observations collected by 19 satellites over 15 years.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

The provided Wikipedia results for this claim discuss NASA's general administration and astronaut groups, but do not mention the specific number of observations, satellites, or the 15-year timeframe for this visualization.

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the United States' civil space program, as well as research in aeronau…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — NASA Astronaut Group 19 was a NASA spaceflight team that saw the training of two pilots, six mission specialists, three educator mission specialists to become NASA astronauts. These 11 astronauts bega…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Astronaut_Group_19

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — There are NASA facilities across the United States and internationally. NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. provides overall policy direction and leadership for the agency. Ten field centers manage …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_facilities

help

Claim 6: “These include NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment and the European Space Agency’s Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found in the provided search results to confirm the specific satellites used for this visualization.

check_circle

Claim 7: “NASA has released a visualisation of the geoid”

CORROBORATED

Multiple independent sources, including NASA's own Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS), Big Think, and other news outlets, confirm the release of a 3D visualization of the geoid.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — NASA has released a new 3D visualization of the geoid — a model of our lumpy Earth. The geoid’s actual highs and lows span just 627 feet, so this map exaggerates the dents and bumps by a factor of 10,…
https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/nasa-geoid-potato-earth/

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — The Geoid. Released Wednesday, July 15, 2026.This visualization exaggerates the Geoid Height by a factor of 10,000. The geoid is an equipotential surface that can be thought of as the shape an ocean s…
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5660

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio released a geoid visualization in July 2026 using the GOCO06s global gravity-field model.NASA released a scientific visualization of the gravity field; its outli…
https://googolstars.com/news/nasa-potato-earth-geoid-explain…

check_circle

Claim 8: “NASA’s visualisation magnifies these differences by a factor of 10,000”

CORROBORATED

NASA SVS, Big Think, and other reports explicitly state that the visualization exaggerates the geoid height by a factor of 10,000.

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — The administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the highest-ranking official of NASA, the national space agency of the United States. The administrator is NASA's chief decisi…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrator_of_NASA

menu_book

+ 3 more evidence sources

check_circle

Claim 9: “The geoid [is] the apparent real shape of our planet given the global ocean surface if it were exclusively under the influence of gravity and Earth’s rotation.”

CORROBORATED

The definition of the geoid as the shape the ocean surface would take under the influence of gravity and rotation is confirmed by NASA SVS, Euronews, and New Scientist.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — The geoid is an equipotential surface that can be thought of as the shape an ocean surface would take due to the Earth's gravity field. In this visualization the geoid height is greatly exaggerated, b…
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5660

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Mapping Earth’s gravity, NASA has released a visualisation of the geoid — the apparent real shape of our planet given the global ocean surface if it were exclusively under the influence of gravity and…
https://www.euronews.com/next/2026/08/17/the-geoid-why-nasas…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — This is where the geoid comes in. It is a surface where the Earth’s gravitational potential is equal and which best fits the global mean sea level.The geoid represents the shape the sea surface would …
https://www.newscientist.com/article/1868593-the-word-geoid/

check_circle

Claim 10: “In reality, the difference between its highest and lowest points is 191 metres.”

CORROBORATED

While the specific evidence block for claim 5 contains irrelevant data, the evidence provided for claims 4, 6, and 7 explicitly mentions the range from +85m to -106m, which totals 191m. This is corroborated by the 'potato Earth' web result.

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — 191 may also refer to: 191 (number) AD 191 191 BC 191 (New Jersey bus) Special Order 191 Timeline-191 Jordan 191 VF-191
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/191

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — American Airlines Flight 191 was a regularly scheduled domestic passenger flight from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago to Los Angeles International Airport. On the afternoon of May 25, 1979, th…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_191

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — The QBZ-191 (Chinese: 191式自动步枪; pinyin: Yāo jiǔ yāo Shì Zìdòng Bùqiāng) is a Chinese assault rifle chambered for the 5.8×42mm intermediate cartridge, designed and manufactured by Chongqing Jianshe as …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QBZ-191

+ 3 more evidence sources

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.