I think the question comes from (or is at least related to) the recent UN vote on moving from Mercator to Equal Earth projection.
What people are drawing isn't the "truth" on average. First, nobody has seen the world from actual far away (space) and is just using what they remember from school or other media. And second, there is no "truth" because we are fundamentally dealing with a 2d projection of the 3d surface of a sphere and there are many different projections, all with advantages and disadvantages, neither being more correct than any other.
alt Hacker News
I think the question comes from (or is at least related to) the recent UN vote on moving from Mercator to Equal Earth projection.
What people are drawing isn't the "truth" on average. First, nobody has seen the world from actual far away (space) and is just using what they remember from school or other media. And second, there is no "truth" because we are fundamentally dealing with a 2d projection of the 3d surface of a sphere and there are many different projections, all with advantages and disadvantages, neither being more correct than any other.