Investigando a terra plana com o Stellarium

Abstract

On November 10, 1952, a young Dutch seminarian named Johannes Michael Antonius Polman landed at the port of Rio de Janeiro. Coming from Rotterdam to study in Brazil. After his preparation was completed, he was ordained priest in 1957 acting as priest of the Order of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the city of Recife. In addition to his ecclesiastical service, he has worked hard on teaching and spreading astronomy, and is the founder of the first student club of its kind in the city, influencing generations of boys and girls in the scientific field. This work, besides the memory retrieval of Jorge Polman, also presents a proposal of interdisciplinary Astronomy teaching, using computational technologies, involving the controversial Flat Earth model. This research aims to present some arguments that have been used throughout the history of science to prove the sphericity of the Earth, and the reproduction of part of these arguments with the aid of Stellarium software. The motivation comes from the growing emphasis that this theme has gained on social networks and YouTube channels, and it is necessary to alert our teachers and students about the Troll activity that some of these digital influencers use to co-opt followers, making them believe in global theories of conspiracy. Evidence is discussed such as the lunar eclipse, the peculiar constellations of each hemisphere, the retrograde motions of the planets, and the phases of Venus. Particularly noteworthy is the reproduction of the Eratosthenes experiment for measuring the curvature of the earth with the help of Google Earth and Stellarium.